Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Mumbai, Oct 18 (IANS) Maharashtra state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Chockalingam denied allegations made by opposition parties that voters are added and removed at specific times as someone outside the Election Commission is handling it.
“The process of correcting and correcting the errors in the voter lists of the Assembly constituencies is ongoing. For this, the Election Commission of India has made available a highly secure portal. No one except the Voter Registration Officer can make changes in the voter list. No representative of any political party is associated with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer and the Election Commission of India. Therefore, the information circulated in this regard is completely baseless and baseless,” the CEO said in the eight-page release. Factless.”
The CEO’s clarification comes especially in the wake of an opposition delegation meeting him on October 14, and later he also met Chockalingam and the State Election Commissioner (SEC) on October 15, demanding that elections to local and civic bodies be postponed until the Election Commission corrects the errors in the voter list. The opposition expressed concern over irregularities in the voter list.
According to the release, the State Election Commission has published the voter list for claims and objections regarding elections to local self-government bodies till July 1, 2025. The Commission has provided a time limit for claims and objections.
As mentioned in the said published list, if there are multiple entries of the same person, discrepancies like errors in name, age, address etc. in the details of voters need to be rectified. In such cases, the Voter Registration Officer of the concerned Assembly Constituency will investigate and take a decision on the basis of the applications filed.
“In the state, there are about 9 crore 80 lakh voters, and they are divided into about 1 lakh polling stations. The concerned electoral registration authorities have been given full powers to make corrections, inclusions or deletions in the voter list.”
There are 288 electoral registration officers in the state, among them there are officers of the rank of sub-divisional officer.
These also include Tehsildar level Assistant Electoral Registration Officers. The voter registration process is carried out as per the procedure laid down by the Representation of the People Act, Electoral Registration Rules and guidelines of the Election Commission of India,” the release said.
Both the Election Commission of India and State Election Commissions are independent statutory bodies. As per constitutional provisions, the responsibility of preparing voter lists for elections to local self-government bodies in the state has been entrusted to the State Election Commission.
“In accordance with the provisions of the Acts governing local self-government institutions in the State, the electoral roll prepared by the Election Commission of India for the State Legislative Assembly elections is used by the State Election Commission for the Local Body elections,” the release said.
“For the upcoming elections to local self-government bodies conducted by the State Election Commission, the voter lists of the Assembly constituencies updated up to 01.07.2025 have been obtained from the Election Commission of India and certified by the State Election Commission through the district administration,” the release said.
If a voter changes his address, he applies for voter registration at the new location by filling Form 8. At such times, the voter’s name is first included in the new location. The work of inclusion of name is done by the Voter Registration Officer of the new constituency and after making the entry, the work of deletion of the original place of the voter is done by the original Voter Registration Officer on the basis of Form 7. Special care is taken to ensure that no voter’s name is duplicated. Therefore, sometimes a voter may be present at two places for some time, the release said.
According to the CEO, a program for brief revision of assembly electoral rolls was announced by the Election Commission of India after October 2024.
In each month from November 2024 to September 2025, a summary of the inclusions, deletions and corrections made in each electoral roll was made available on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra in the prescribed format issued by the Election Commission of India.
This was done so that political parties recognized by the Election Commission could inform their party workers about this.
The process of adding new names, deleting, modifying names or making amendments in the assembly electoral rolls being prepared under the special revision program run by the Election Commission of India is done through special revision.
–IANS
sj/and