If SEC cannot grant the extension, civic polls should be deferred, say Aaditya, Raj Thackeray

Aaditya, who met SEC officials along with a joint Sena (UBT) and MNS delegation, claimed that the scale of errors in the draft rolls pointed to deliberate manipulation rather than clerical lapses. “Repeated names, twice, thrice and even up to seven times, have crossed a million. There are 26,319 households with more than 10 voters registered to a single address, some showing more than a thousand voters in one 10×10 room,” he said.

He added that nearly seven lakh voters did not have house numbers or complete address details. “This is fraud, not error. If the EC is serious about free and fair elections, these must be corrected,” he said.

Raj Thackeray, in a strongly worded letter submitted to State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, accused the SEC of functioning without transparency and failing to adhere to its own timelines. He pointed out that the last valid voter list was published on October 30, 2024, after which the mandatory annual and quarterly revisions were skipped. “If this is not intentional, what is the reason? The draft list published now is full of confusion—no clarity on gender, addresses or basic details,” Raj wrote.

He further questioned the SEC’s decision to publish the draft list on November 20, though it was originally scheduled for November 6, saying the commission had effectively gone 13 months without releasing a proper list and then allowed only eight days for objections. “You call yourself an autonomous body—then show it. Keep your spine straight and prove that your authority comes from autonomy,” Raj said, adding that Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam had earlier assured political leaders that the next list would be error-free.

The joint delegation met Waghmare on Monday and handed over Raj’s letter, calling the situation ‘disgraceful’ and demanding immediate corrective action. Both parties said the SEC must mobilise its full machinery to rectify the alleged discrepancies before proceeding with the election schedule.