Sena (UBT) steps up ground campaign against alleged ‘vote theft’

by Webdesk
14 Dec 2025

As Mumbai moves closer to a crucial civic election, the debate around alleged “vote chori” or vote theft has intensified, turning voter lists into a major political flashpoint. Claims that electoral rolls were artificially inflated with fake or duplicate voters to benefit the ruling alliance have forced the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to undertake a large-scale exercise to clean up the voters’ list. With municipal elections barely six weeks away, the outcome will determine which political combine controls the civic administration and financial machinery of India’s commercial capital.

While the BMC is carrying out its official verification process, another parallel effort is unfolding quietly across the city. Shiv Sena (UBT) has mobilised its organisational machinery to conduct an independent, on-ground voter verification drive. Party workers, operating largely after working hours, are combing through electoral rolls at the grassroots level to identify what they allege are bogus, duplicated or wrongly shifted voter entries.

According to local Sena (UBT) leaders, thousands of party office-bearers have been deployed across all 227 municipal wards. They claim their early findings suggest that a significant number of fictitious names and duplicate entries could have altered electoral outcomes had they gone unnoticed. The party believes this lends credibility to earlier allegations made by its ally Congress and leader Rahul Gandhi, who first flagged concerns about vote manipulation more than a year ago.

In Girgaum’s Borbhat Cross Lane, Vaibhav Kelkar, an upa-shakha pramukh, was surprised while checking the voter list of the Saptarshi building where he has lived for over three decades. Two unfamiliar names from the Muslim community appeared on the rolls for his building, which Kelkar insists are entirely fictitious. He has since submitted a formal objection along with documentary proof to the BMC for correction.

A similar issue was found by Kiran Vedak, a gat pramukh from Denawadi in Thakurdwar. Vedak discovered that 10 out of 40 long-time residents in his area were labelled as “duplicate” voters, despite having lived at the same address for decades. Such cases, party workers argue, raise serious concerns about genuine voters being disenfranchised.

Under BMC rules, voters marked as duplicates must submit a declaration stating the ward from which they intend to vote. Failure to do so could result in their voting rights being compromised. However, Sena (UBT) leaders question how ordinary citizens would even know they have been categorised as duplicates unless informed.

As data from various shakhas is compiled, the party claims a worrying pattern is emerging. Instead of merely adding fake voters, a large number of genuine voters—particularly those with a Marathi identity—have allegedly been marked as duplicates. In Lower Parel alone, the party claims that nearly 3,750 of the 7,200 voters tagged as duplicates were long-term residents and traditional Sena voters. If these figures are accurate, the Sena (UBT) estimates it could have lost more than a thousand votes per ward across Mumbai, a margin large enough to swing electoral outcomes in tightly contested areas.

The stakes could not be higher for the Sena (UBT). The upcoming BMC elections will be the first major electoral face-off between Uddhav Thackeray’s faction and the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, following the party split in 2022. With the Shinde-led Sena aligned with the BJP-led Mahayuti government, the UBT faction faces an uphill battle.

In September, Uddhav Thackeray had alleged that voter rolls were inflated by nearly 1.4 million names following the 2024 assembly elections. Party workers were instructed to closely monitor electoral lists in their respective areas. The verification drive, initiated by Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray, uncovered over 19,000 suspicious voter entries in his constituency alone, triggering alarm bells across the party organisation.

Each ward, comprising 40 to 45 polling booths, has voter lists running into thousands of names. Party workers systematically visited hundreds of households to cross-check entries. In Lower Parel’s shakha number 198, which has over 47,000 registered voters, teams led by shakha pramukh Deepak Bagwe identified numerous irregularities after conducting detailed readings of voter lists.

Workers reported finding voters who had moved away years ago, names of deceased individuals still on the rolls, and even unfamiliar surnames designed to avoid suspicion. In Girgaum and Worli, party leaders claim hundreds of Marathi voters were shifted to distant booths, potentially discouraging them from voting.

Senior Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab said the party cannot afford to ignore such discrepancies. He pointed out that in 2017, the Sena lost several seats by narrow margins. “Even a few hundred votes can decide a civic seat. This time, our workers are determined not to let manipulation cost us again,” he said.

Meanwhile, municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani stated that the BMC will strictly follow State Election Commission guidelines while finalising voter lists. He clarified that no voter would be denied the right to vote, but duplicate entries must be resolved before ward-wise lists are published. As the election countdown begins, the battle over voter lists has become as significant as the political contest itself, with every name on the roll potentially shaping Mumbai’s civic future.

Image Courtesy:

02 Jan 2026

BMC Elections

Sena (UBT) steps up ground campaign against alleged ‘vote theft’

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