CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR, Oct 18: NCP MLC Satish Chavan on Saturday demanded postponement of the local body elections in Maharashtra till the electoral rolls are rectified, claiming that 36,000 names were appearing twice in the voters’ list in an assembly segment in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar alone.
He warned of approaching the court if the corrections were not made.
The call for postponement of the polls from the ruling party legislator comes amid a similar demand by the Opposition parties, who allege that the voters’ lists were ““highly compromised and manipulated”.
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On Wednesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil, and Congress’s Balasaheb Thorat met State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare and Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam to raise concerns over alleged irregularities in the voters’ lists.
The local body polls are likely to be held in the next two months or early next year.
Addressing a press conference here, Chavan, who belongs to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, alleged that 36,000 names of voters in the Gangapur assembly seat are appearing twice in the list.
“This is being done deliberately and action should be taken against the booth level officers (BLOs) who have done this. This list should be corrected and the election process should be postponed till the corrections are done,” he said.
“The BLOs should check the names of each voter. The election process should be postponed for a period of three to four months till the voters’ lists are corrected. If it is not done by the officials concerned, we will go to court as we are running out of time,” he said.
The work supposed to be carried out by the Election Commission is being done by the workers of political parties, he said.
“There is duplication of names of a large number of voters in the Ranjangaon Shenpunji area of Gangapur. The name of a sarpanch appears in three different voter lists, which is a serious issue. It seems that this is being done deliberately,” he said.
The names of voters who died 13 years ago are still in the list. Several voters’ homes are listed as house number zero, Chavan said.
“The list mentions one voter residing in alley number 123 in Gandhi Nagar area in Ranjangaon. But no such alley exists there. As many as 776 voters have the address of a former sarpanch mentioned in the list,” he said.
There are over 4,000 bogus voters in Ranjangaon circle itself, the NCP MLC claimed, adding that the district collector has promised to look into the issue. (PTI)
