Mumbai: The announcement of date for the Maharashtra local bodies elections gave a renewed vigour to the MVA to demand rectification in electoral rolls, while the ruling Mahayuti said the Opposition wants an excuse to postpone the polls as it is staring at a defeat.
The MVA comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and Congress said despite pointing out the alleged irregularities in the voters’ list, including duplication of names, the Election Commission (EC) was pushing ahead with the polls without making any corrections.
The Mahayuti combine of the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, maintained that correction of voters’ list was a continuous process, and expressed confidence that it would win the elections. Elections to 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats in the state will take place on December 2, while the votes will be counted on December 3, State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said on Tuesday.
Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant welcomed the announcement of the poll schedule, and expressed confidence that the ruling alliance would sweep the elections.
BJP leader Subhash Deshmukh said local body polls belong to the grassroots cadre and it is now the test of their hard work and resilience.
“Duplicate voters in the electoral rolls is not a new phenomenon and the election officials keep updating the list as it is a continuous process. Updating the electoral rolls is necessary as several voters die or migrate. Political parties are not at fault (for any mistakes in the list),” he said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve said the Opposition was ready for polls but pointed out “lack of clarity” on duplicate voters. Instead of putting a double asterisk against the names of possible duplicate voters, such names should be deleted, he said.