Pune: Even as Maharashtra gears up for municipal corporation elections, thousands of voters across the state continue to find their names duplicated on electoral rolls, often linked to more than one polling station. The issue, reported across all 29 municipal corporations, raised fears of confusion on polling day and placed the burden of verification squarely on voters.
A Pune voter, who participated in multiple elections over the years, said her name continues to appear twice in the same ward, with two different polling stations mentioned. “No election official contacted me or guided me on where exactly I should vote. Unless such cases are resolved clearly, voters will continue to face problems,” she told TOI. Another voter said while he could identify the correct polling booth after checking his EPIC details, the duplication itself was troubling. “Why should voters be expected to cross-check everything? Why can’t election officials provide us with a clean and accurate voter list?” he asked. Several voters who noticed repeated entries said these errors should ideally have been corrected during ward-wise micro-planning and electoral roll updates, much before polling dates were announced. Political workers echoed similar concerns, warning that unresolved discrepancies could lead to arguments at polling stations, delays, and even voters being turned away. Data accessed by TOI shows that despite a large-scale clean-up exercise initiated by the State Election Commission (SEC), over 10.32 lakh duplicate or erroneous voter names remain on electoral rolls across Maharashtra’s municipal corporations. Of the 23.91 lakh duplicate names originally flagged, 13.58 lakh were removed, translating to 56.8% completion, while 43.18% of the work remains pending. The pace of deletions varies sharply across civic bodies. Solapur completed virtually none of the clean-up, with 99.9% of flagged names still pending, followed by Chandrapur (99.52%) and Jalna (98.95%). Navi Mumbai, Parbhani, and Dhule also removed less than 10% of the identified duplicate entries. In contrast, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) made significant progress, with only 15.52% of the flagged work remaining. However, due to Mumbai’s massive electorate, the absolute number of duplicate names still stands at around 1.7 lakh, underscoring the scale of the challenge. SEC officials said duplicate entries were identified during the micro-planning exercise, and civic election officers were directed to use specialised software to delete names after due verification. However, they acknowledged that several corporations are yet to complete the process. Political workers and civil society groups warned that unless voter lists are corrected urgently, confusion on polling day could discourage turnout. “The system is effectively pushing the responsibility onto voters. People will have to check their names online, confirm booth details, and physically reach the correct polling station. Any mismatch could result in voters returning home,” said a civic activist.
