With the State Election Commission (SEC) remaining unresponsive, Maharashtra’s Opposition leaders took their concerns to Delhi, meeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
A delegation of Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leaders Bala Nandgaonkar and Nitin Sardesai, and Congress leader Atul Londe met the CEC on Tuesday.
At the meeting, Opposition leaders urged Kumar to clean up the electoral rolls before proceeding with the local body polls. “If not Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the poll body should at least clear the duplicate names and other errors before giving the green light for local body elections,” Sardesai told mid-day over the phone after the meeting ended.
Last month, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray, NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar and the Congress met the SEC to brief its officials about errors in voter lists and requested them to not conduct polls until they are rectified.
On November 1, the entire Opposition staged a rally in Mumbai to register their protest against the anomalies in the electoral rolls. However, on receiving no concrete response to their demands, Opposition leaders have now approached the CEC with their grievances.
After the meeting, a delegation member of the delegation said, on the condition of anonymity, “We hope that the meeting will result in change. But one should not expect much, as the CEC’s response did not seem very positive.” Elections to local bodies are expected to be completed by January 31, 2026, the deadline set by the Supreme Court to complete the poll process for all such polls.
