New Delhi: Over 11 lakh duplicate entries in Mumbai and hundreds of voters registered at Nanded coaching institutes have surfaced in Maharashtra’s draft electoral rolls, casting doubt on the timeline for the upcoming civic body polls.

Amid these massive discrepancies, detailed in separate reports by Aaj Tak and The Quint, and mounting criticism from the opposition, the state election commission (SEC) has extended the deadline for filing objections in Mumbai.

Mumbai: One voter, 103 entries

Data accessed by Aaj Tak reveals a staggering 10.64% of Mumbai’s 1.03 crore registered voters are duplicates. Roughly 11.01 lakh entries appear more than once in the draft list.

In one egregious instance cited by the report, a single voter’s name was confirmed to have been recorded 103 times. Officials attributed these errors to printing mistakes, voters shifting locations and the non-removal of deceased residents.

The issue appears most acute in opposition strongholds. Aaj Tak reported that four of the five wards with the highest number of duplicates were previously represented by the Shiv Sena (UBT) or National Congress Party (Sharad Pawar). Ward 199 in Worli, represented by former mayor Kishori Pednekar, topped the list with 8,207 duplicate voters.

Acknowledging the scale of the issue, the SEC has extended the deadline for filing objections in Mumbai from November 27 to December 3. Officials indicated this cleanup exercise could push the civic elections – mandated by the Supreme Court to be completed by January 31, 2026 – into February.

Nanded: The ‘coaching centre’ voters

Another investigation by The Quint uncovered bizarre anomalies in the Nanded Waghala Corporation’s electoral rolls.

Analysis of Ward No. 5 revealed over 600 voters registered using the addresses of two coaching institutes – IIB Career Institute and RCC Pattern Coaching. Additionally, 3,587 entries in the ward listed their address simply as "not applicable" (NA).

Dashrath Patil, MD of IIB Career Institute, was quoted by The Quint as saying that the students listed had moved out long ago. "The Collector at the time was given a target to enroll as many voters to the list as possible... These students don't live here now," he said.

A booth level officer confirmed to the news platform that immense pressure to meet registration targets led to procedural lapses, where institute addresses were used because students’ Aadhaar cards listed their native places.

Political fallout

The opposition has criticised these irregularities. 

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, who had requested an extension, called it “highly condemnable and unforgivable” and warned that the refusal to address these issues would raise doubts over the fairness of the election process.

"From top to bottom, everybody wants to meet the targets," the report in The Quint noted, highlighting the systemic pressure that has led to a roll riddled with errors just months before the crucial local body elections.

Varsha Gaikwad, Mumbai Congress president and MP, seized on the figure of 11 lakh duplicate voters, warning that an error of such scale could subvert the election.

"The list of more than 11 lakh duplicate voters in the city should be made public," she demanded. Arbitrarily shifting thousands of voters to wrong wards, she added, could "significantly alter electoral outcomes."

Further, deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, campaigning in Satara, too acknowledged the discrepancy.

"The count of double, triple, quadruple voters in Mumbai is around 11 lakh," Pawar said. "This kind of double, triple voting will not be tolerated in Maharashtra." 

He has asked the Election Commission to intervene.

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