Pune: Political parties have stepped up scrutiny of Maharashtra’s draft electoral rolls to identify genuine voters left out during SIR.Congress functionary Sandesh Kondvilkar said election authorities must publish a booth-wise list of unmapped voters or those with anomalies and likely to face notices and hearings.His letter on Aug 31 to Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam said the draft roll does not indicate whether a voter is unmapped or has an anomaly, and electors and political parties have no way of knowing which entries will be under scrutiny.Kondvilkar also sought publication of the notice-bound voters’ list, arguing that transparency at the booth level would allow voters, political parties and their representatives to track the verification and hearing process.He raised concerns over the large number of electors categorised as untraceable or permanently shifted during the SIR exercise. Such categorisation could lead to further exclusions from the electoral roll.The letter added that BLAs were not yet provided with constituency-wise details of the procedure for issuing notices and conducting hearings.State NCP (SP) president Shashikant Shinde told TOI, “We are comparing the voters’ list published before 2024 elections with the draft SIR rolls. Before the 2024 elections, there was an increase of around 15,000 voters in many constituencies and now there is a reduction of around 25,000 voters in the draft roll. Our BLAs and other party workers will scrutinise the draft roll.”Shiv Sena (UBT) senior member Ambadas Danve said, “Election Commission of India will give us the lists on Thursday after which BLAs and party workers will start their scrutiny. Names that appear multiple times will be cancelled. We will locate genuine voters who have been left out.”
