The Hindu: Published on 14th November 2025.
Why in News?
Following Supreme Court directions, Maharashtra will conduct local body elections in three phases starting December 2.
Opposition parties have raised serious concerns about errors, duplicate entries, bulk voters, and incorrect addresses in the electoral rolls.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has announced steps to handle discrepancies within the limits of its constitutional authority.
What is the Role of the State Election Commission (SEC)?
The SEC cannot add or delete names from the voters’ lists.
As per constitutional provisions, SEC supervises and conducts elections to all urban and rural local bodies.
It uses the voters’ lists prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
SEC’s main functions:
Delimitation of Assembly constituencies into wards
Publishing draft voters’ lists
Inviting and resolving objections
Publishing final ward-wise voters’ lists
Issuing polling centre lists
Which Voter List Will Be Used?
The electoral roll as of July 1, 2025 will be used.
The “cut-off date” for first-time voters was January 1, 2025, meaning:
Young voters who turned 18 after January 2025 will not be able to vote this time, causing dissatisfaction among youth.
How Will Duplicate and Missing Entries Be Addressed?
(A) SEC cannot add/delete names, but it can mark problematic entries.
(B) Duplicate Entries
A special tool will identify duplicate names based on four filters:
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Gender
Lists of suspected duplicate voters will be sent to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
CEO will conduct field verification.
(C) Preventing Multiple Voting
Voters flagged as duplicates must give an undertaking specifying the booth where they will vote.
These undertakings will be kept at the polling station with marked copies to ensure no individual votes at multiple booths.
(D) Missing or Wrong Ward Entries
Objections can be raised for:
A name present in Assembly list but missing in local body list
Name placed in the wrong ward
Duplicate entries
Multiple voters registered at the same address
Who Can Raise Objections? How Are They Resolved?
Any citizen, political party, candidate, or organisation can file objections during the revision programme.
Timeline for Municipal Corporation Voter List Revision:
Nov 20: Draft voters’ list published
Nov 20–27: Objections/suggestions invited
Dec 5: Final ward-wise voters’ list
Dec 8: Polling centre list
Dec 12: Final polling centre–wise voters’ list
Objections are examined and valid corrections are incorporated.
Will Opposition Concerns Be Addressed?
Opposition claims the following remain unresolved:
Lack of transparency in rolls
Double voters
Bulk voters at one address
Voters with zero/invalid addresses
Names of people from outside Maharashtra found in lists
Defects in the base list (created by ECI) cannot be corrected by SEC
They question:
The short time available to identify and verify duplicate entries
The inability of SEC to correct fundamental errors in the ECI list
The scope of the exercise, calling it insufficient to clean the rolls
SEC’s stance:
It can flag errors, but cannot modify the list
Duplicate marking + undertakings + field verification will reduce multiple voting
Objection-filing mechanism will handle ward-level issues
Measures to Ensure Fair and Clean Elections
Tech-based detection of duplicate names
Field verification of flagged entries
Undertaking system to prevent multiple voting
Ward-wise redistribution of voters
Public participation through objections
Polling station–wise marked copies to track duplicates
Publication of draft and final lists for transparency
Conclusion:
- SEC’s power is limited to managing and organising elections, not cleaning or correcting the base ECI voters’ list.
- The revised programme tries to improve transparency and reduce duplication, but Opposition’s broader concerns—particularly structural flaws in the voters’ lists—remain unresolved.
- The time pressure (court deadline: Jan 31, 2026) adds to operational challenges, potentially affecting comprehensive verification.
