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Mumbai, Nov 25 (IANS) The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday appealed to the State Election Commission (SEC) to extend the deadline for submitting objections and suggestions on the draft voter lists released by various municipal corporations in the state, saying the seven-day limit is grossly inadequate.
State Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal, Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar and Legislative Council group leader Satej Patil said in a letter to the SEC that the draft voter list for municipal elections in the state was published on November 20, and the deadline for submitting objections and suggestions has been set for November 27.
However, many municipal corporations require extension of this time limit for submitting objections and suggestions on the draft voter lists. He said the current period of only seven days is extremely short and should be extended to 15 days.
Sapkal said, “In many municipal corporations, the draft voter lists have not been properly divided ward-wise. The names of many voters have been shifted from their residential areas to other areas, and the number of such cases is quite large. The process of filing objections is also extremely complex, requiring each person to file an application in the prescribed format along with the Aadhaar card. This method is cumbersome and time-consuming.”
Sapkal said, “If any individual or political party brings a valid objection or suggestion to the notice of the competent election authority, the complaints in respect of multiple individuals should be accepted; however, this is not happening at present. To ensure clarity and transparency in the voter lists, it is necessary to register the complaints of political parties and every citizen. Since the population in each ward is quite large, it will take time to verify the voter lists. Therefore, the time limit should be extended.”
The Congress party’s demand for extension of time for seeking suggestions and objections comes a day after Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena founder Raj Thackeray jointly made a similar demand in a letter addressed to the SEC.
He demanded that the State Election Commission should be given 21 days time to give suggestions and objections or the elections should be canceled and elections should be held only to correct the voter list.
He also appealed to Maharashtra State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare to take immediate steps to remove serious irregularities and confusion in the voter list published for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
–IANS
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