In a massive pre-election cleanup drive, Mumbai's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has initiated an extensive door-to-door verification campaign to identify and remove duplicate names from the draft voter list. This crucial exercise comes ahead of the impending civic elections scheduled for 2025.
Massive Scale of Duplicate Entries Uncovered
The verification process has revealed staggering numbers of duplicate voter registrations across Mumbai. Over one million duplicate names have been identified in the electoral rolls, with data showing that approximately 4.33 lakh voter names have been replicated, in many cases more than twice.
In what officials describe as an extreme case, one particular voter's name was found to be replicated an astonishing 103 times in the system. This highlights the critical need for the ongoing verification drive to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
Verification Process and Challenges
According to the State Election Commission's directives, the draft ward-wise voter list marks names appearing more than once with a double asterisk (**). Election officials are now conducting thorough cross-checks using multiple parameters including voters' names, gender, address, and photographs to determine whether these entries belong to one individual or multiple people.
However, the BMC has reported facing significant resistance from some individuals and housing societies, which is hampering the verification process. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and election staff visiting homes for verification have encountered non-cooperation in certain areas, slowing down the crucial electoral preparation work.
Official Measures and Citizen Cooperation
The civic body has emphasized that this door-to-door verification is essential to ensure accuracy in the voter list. Once a voter with duplicate entries is verified as a single individual, the BMC will finalize the polling station as per the voter's preference.
Official communication will soon be sent to chairpersons and secretaries of housing societies to ensure compliance and cooperation with the verification process. In cases where details match across multiple entries, BLOs are required to contact voters directly to confirm their identity and collect applications specifying their preferred polling booth.
The BMC has made a strong appeal to all citizens and housing societies to cooperate fully with the election staff conducting the verification drive. This cooperation is vital for creating a clean and accurate voter list that truly represents Mumbai's electorate ahead of the important 2025 civic elections.
