BMC polls: SEC extends deadline for final voter list

This is the second extension and is likely to further delay the municipal corporation elections across Maharashtra.

MUMBAI: Amid mounting complaints of errors in the draft voter list for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the State Election Commission (SEC) has extended the deadline for the final publication of electoral rolls from December 5 to December 10. This is the second extension and is likely to further delay the municipal corporation elections across Maharashtra.

The BMC has initiated a verification drive to eliminate duplicate entries, to ensure that no voter casts a ballot at more than one polling booth. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo)

The SEC announced on Wednesday that it is extending the deadline for the final publication of the voter list to December 10, allowing more time for scrutiny. The last date for the publication of the booth-wise voter list has also been pushed from December 12 to December 22.

The extension has been granted after the BMC and other civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region received a large number of complaints about erroneous shifting of voters and duplicate entries. Opposition parties, including the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, have submitted thousands of such complaints.

Mumbai has over 1.1 million duplicate entries of 4.4 million voters in the list finalised for the BMC elections. The BMC has initiated a verification drive to eliminate such duplicate entries, to ensure that no voter casts a ballot at more than one polling booth.

The rescheduling of the pre-poll programme for the municipal corporations is expected to delay the elections in Mumbai and other cities. “The SEC had planned to hold the municipal corporation elections between January 15 and 20. But with this extension, the elections are expected to be delayed at least by two weeks,” said an official from the state urban development department.