Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Oct 27: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Monday raised serious concerns over alleged “vote theft” in Mumbai’s voter rolls and urged party workers to take responsibility for verifying voter lists ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Speaking at the party’s Nirdhar rally, Thackeray called on cadres to check for duplicate names, deceased voters, incorrect photos and addresses, and multiple entries, warning that discrepancies in the rolls could influence poll results.
“The voters’ list is a fraud. We must expose this scam and prevent bogus voting. If not stopped, these manipulations will change the results,” he said, urging party leaders at every level — Vibhag Pramukhs, Shakha Pramukhs and Up-Shakha Pramukhs — to join the campaign under the motto “My responsibility is my list.”
Thackeray also announced that opposition and like-minded parties would hold a march in Mumbai on November 1 to protest against “vote theft” and irregularities in the electoral rolls.
Presenting data from his own Worli constituency, Thackeray said he had personally reviewed the voter list and found “huge discrepancies.” According to him, the number of voters in Worli rose from 2,52,970 in the Lok Sabha polls to 2,63,352 in the Assembly polls, with 16,043 new names added and 5,661 removed, resulting in 19,333 questionable entries.
“Vote theft everywhere means election theft,” he said. “The election will not be won by campaign alone, but with the voter list in hand.”
Thackeray claimed there were 22,000–23,000 irregular entries in Worli alone and “lakhs” across Mumbai. Alleging that the Election Commission was working for the BJP, he urged party workers to remain vigilant.
Detailing anomalies, Thackeray said his team found 502 voters with identical names and fathers’ names, 720 voters with mismatched surnames and parent names, 643 listed as male under female names, 28 without EPIC numbers, and 133 with duplicate EPICs.
He cited cases of multiple voter IDs for a single person and even voters marked deceased in one election appearing active in the next. “There are 113 voters over 100 years old in Worli. If you want to live longer, come to Worli!” he quipped.
Thackeray also alleged that over 4,000 voters lacked proper addresses, some 214 homes had 38 voters each, and 48 voters were registered under a sweet shop’s address.
He said several missing photos, multilingual voter cards, and irregular entries had been captured on video, adding that the party would pursue the issue to ensure a fair and transparent BMC election.