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BMC Election Row: Thackeray cousins insist on 21-day window to raise objections on draft voter list
- by Webdesk
- 25 Nov 2025
Source: Hindustan Times
Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Monday addressed a letter to the State Election Commission (SEC) raising serious concerns about the draft voters’ list for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections released on November 20.
According to the letter, the Thackeray cousins have alleged massive discrepancies in the voter data, claiming that thousands of registered voters have been shifted to different municipal wards and that more than one million duplicate entries exist across Mumbai. They have demanded that the objection period for the draft voter list be expanded from the current seven days to 21 days, asserting that elections must not be conducted until the voter database is corrected thoroughly.
A joint delegation from both parties — comprising Aaditya Thackeray and Anil Parab from Shiv Sena (UBT), along with Bala Nandgaonkar from the MNS — met SEC chief Dinesh Waghmare to hand over the complaint letter. Interestingly, representatives from the two other major opposition parties, NCP (SP) and Congress, were not present during this meeting.
After the interaction with the SEC, Aaditya Thackeray briefed the media, stating that both parties have started analysing the draft voter list in depth. He revealed that 6,97,000 voters in Mumbai do not have a house number mentioned in official records and 26,319 homes have been shown collectively holding nearly 8 lakh voters, an anomaly which the parties claim is impossible in reality.
“These figures are staggering. We want the SEC to correct the voters’ list before conducting the elections and allow a 21-day window for objections so that the public and political parties can scrutinise the data properly,” Aaditya Thackeray said. He further pointed out that 6,076 listed voters are aged either below 18 or above 100, which violates the basic eligibility norms for voting. When questioned about the SEC’s reaction to their demands, the Worli MLA stated that commissioner Waghmare assured the delegation that the issue would receive serious consideration.
During the meeting, Anil Parab referred to ward 162 in Saki Naka as a concrete example of the discrepancies. Citing a map, he pointed out that around 6,000 voters residing in centrally located buildings within the ward have been shifted to ward 163. “If some names of residents living near the border of two wards were transferred, it would be understandable. But how can thousands of voters from the middle of a ward be moved elsewhere?” Parab questioned, stressing that such relocation appears deliberate and politically motivated to influence the election outcome in favour of ruling parties.
Parab added that the primary expectations conveyed in the joint letter of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray are:
- extending the objection period to 21 days,
- not conducting the election until corrections are made, and
- accepting most of the well-substantiated objections filed by the public and parties.
He also raised alarm over the possibility of misuse of Annexure-B, the affidavit used by individuals whose names appear more than once in the voters’ lists across different locations. Parab argued that if local body elections are held in phases, duplicate voters might take advantage of this and cast their vote multiple times in multiple phases, thus undermining the fairness of the polls. He demanded that the SEC establish a robust mechanism to prevent such misuse.
The letter issued by the Thackeray cousins took a direct swipe at the SEC, accusing the commission of failing to fulfil its constitutional responsibility and compromising its independence. It stated: “You will release another voters’ list on December 5, 2025 and claim that everything has been done according to rules. But the people of Maharashtra are fully aware that you are not conducting your work with integrity. You call yourself an autonomous organisation — then demonstrate your autonomy.”
Both parties stressed that ensuring an accurate voter list is not just a procedural requirement but a fundamental prerequisite for a transparent election. Their letter urges the SEC to act decisively and restore public trust by rectifying the list before initiating the electoral process.
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