Sena (UBT), MNS allege irregularities in electoral rolls ahead of civic polls

The Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Monday questioned the decision to go ahead with elections to 29 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, alleging serious irregularities in the electoral rolls.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray also said the final voters’ list had still not been made available and raised concerns over accountability if errors remain unaddressed. “If there are mistakes in the final rolls, who will take responsibility for correcting them?” he asked.

Former Mumbai mayor and Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar said voters had not been informed whether corrections suggested earlier had been carried out. Announcing elections without clarity on the status of the electoral rolls, she said, raised questions about the fairness of the process.

Echoing similar concerns, MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande alleged that the polls were being conducted on the basis of faulty voters’ lists. Referring to MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s stand on alleged bogus voters, Deshpande said the party would ensure that Mumbai’s mayor would be a ‘Marathi manoos’.

The opposition, particularly Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and his cousin Raj Thackeray, has repeatedly flagged what it claims are large-scale discrepancies in the voters’ list.
Elections to 29 civic bodies, including Mumbai, are scheduled for January 15 and are expected to be a key political contest between the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), especially in urban centres, a year after the Assembly polls.