Mumbai civic polls: Cong's Gaikwad points to 11 lakh duplicate entries in draft voters list
Mumbai (PTI): The Mumbai Congress on Friday alleged irregularities in the draft voters list released for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, claiming nearly 11 lakh duplicate names have been included.
Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad led a party delegation to the State Election Commissioner (SEC) and sought immediate clarification on the anomalies.
Gaikwad told reporters after the meeting that even district collectors and civic deputy commissioners were unable to explain the presence of duplicate names or the procedure to address them.
"Officials say affidavits may be required from duplicate voters. This will only create more confusion and could reduce voter turnout. Citizens are being subjected to unnecessary harassment. The draft list has been released without proper coordination between the SEC and the BMC administration," she said.
"There has been no ward restructuring for nine years. Since October 2024, no voter list has been published. Now, between 7,000 and 9,000 names have been shifted from one ward to another in areas such as Dharavi, Andheri and Kandivali. Neither the SEC nor the civic body has clarified their roles," she claimed.
The SEC must publish the list of duplicate voters and specify where each duplicate entry has been recorded, Gaikwad said.
The commission has issued certain directions to the BMC, which must be implemented without delay, the Congress MP added.
The meeting held this afternoon was attended by SEC officials, the BMC commissioner, additional and deputy commissioners, and Mumbai Congress representatives.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
