The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre and a coalition partner in Maharashtra, said it has identified as many as 12,000 duplicate voters in the Bhosari Assembly constituency.
NCP leader Ajit Gavhane told The Indian Express that the party found the duplicate names after scanning the voters’ list. “These duplicate voters are traced through their names, the names of their family members, and the photos. It is a big exercise. We have repeatedly scanned the voters’ list,” he said.
“These 12,000 names need to be deleted. So far, we have traced the repeat voters only in four prabhags, but we believe that there are more than 1 lakh repeat voters in the Bhosari Assembly constituency,” he added.
Gavhane further said that the party has submitted the names of the duplicate voters, along with proof of their residence and photos, to the election office located at the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) headquarters.
Interestingly, Gavhane contested the 2024 Assembly election from the Bhosari constituency on an NCP-SP ticket. However, he lost to BJP MLA Mahesh Landge by a margin of 63,765 votes.
Meanwhile, NCP-SP MLA Rohit Pawar claimed that as many as 54,660 people who are voters in other constituencies in Pune are also voters in the Chinchwad Assembly constituency. This claim was also made recently by a social organisation, which presented the data to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The deletion of these duplicate or double voters — if it is true — is crucial ahead of the municipal corporation elections.
