‘Where did 5L voters go?’: Thackeray slams ECI over discrepancies in voters’ list

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader claimed that 24,000 bogus voters had been found in Worli, his own assembly constituency

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday sharpened his attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, questioning the disappearance of 500,000 people who had voted in the civic poll in January 2026, but whose names did not appear in the draft roll published by the poll body after the SIR exercise or in the list of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) voters.

Aaditya Thackeray (HT PHOTO)

“Where did these ghost voters disappear,” Thackeray said while addressing a press conference, amid ongoing protests across the country seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the SIR exercise.

Thackeray referred to Kumar as a “traitor” and questioned discrepancies in the total number of voters in Maharashtra, as per figures released by the ECI over the preceding few months. On May 26 2026, the ECI said Maharashtra had 98,644,413 voters, whereas on August 31, it said the state had 97,854,049 voters, Thackeray said.

“Why is there a gap of more than 700,000 voters in two separate statements? Where did these 700,000 voters disappear,” he asked.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader claimed that 24,000 bogus voters had been found in Worli, his own assembly constituency.

Referring to the Mahim assembly constituency, he said around 900 voters had received notices despite their names being part of the post-SIR draft electoral roll.

In the Bhiwandi assembly constituency, out of 373,659 registered voters in 2024, 191,691 cast their votes. But following the SIR exercise, the total number of voters was pegged at 191,643, he said, raising questions about the discrepancy.

Thackeray also slammed the central government for clamping down on and detaining youth heading to New Delhi to participate in protests against the CEC at Jantar Mantar.

“It’s like an emergency. The government is closing railways, metros. What is going on? Gyanesh Kumar will have to go. CJP’s success in getting former union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign has increased people’s confidence and courage,” he said.