Written by Shubham Kurale
Advocates Asim Sarode and Shriya Awale have raised concerns about the state government’s plan to reuse voter lists from last year’s legislative assembly elections for the upcoming local body elections, calling the decision a continuation of “corrupt electoral practices”.
The concern was raised when the State Election Commission (SEC) requested to use the same voter lists that were employed during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections. “These lists have already been questioned in multiple court cases, with documentary evidence suggesting irregularities. Using the same voter lists would be repeating a corrupt experiment that relies on bogus voter information,” said Sarode.
“While the SEC handles the local body elections, they are required by law to use the final electoral roll prepared by the Central Election Commission. The scale of legal challenges to last year’s state assembly election is unprecedented. Out of 288 assembly constituencies, around 100 seats have had their results challenged in the High Court through election petitions,” added Sarode.
Moreover, a discrepancy in voter registration numbers was alleged during the press conference. “The state had 9.73 crore registered voters in the 2024 legislative assembly elections, while the voter registration that followed was 9.80 crore. So if the old list is used, as many as 7 lakh new voters will be deprived of exercising their right to vote,” said Awale.
The advocates alleged that the election officials were instructed to bypass the legally mandated procedures mentioned under the Voters Registration Rules of 1960 about adding or removing names from voter lists, compromising the transparency.
“Maintaining the same voter lists in the upcoming local body elections in which they were changed or prepared in such an opaque manner is a fraud on honest citizens in broad daylight. It would be a betrayal of the Constitution,” added Sarode.
(The author is an intern at The Indian Express)
