Mira-Bhayander voters list: Bars with residents, a dad to 70, ‘ghost’ area voters

It won’t be surprising if Shivram Shetty and Mohandas Hegde, residents of Miragaon in Thane rural district, faced some marital discord recently. According to the voters list released by the state election commission, both are fathers of more than 60 children between them belonging to different religions.

If you thought that was a gaffe, the list also shows that a number of voters of the Mira-Bhayander constituency are residents of supermarkets, lodges and even bars. In short, the list is in quite a mess. All political parties have appealed to the collector to rectify the mistakes at the earliest, as the twin cities go into civic polls early next year.

The 145 Mira-Bhayander constituency’s enrolment process, which included a door-to-door survey and detailed cross-checking of the previous list, was conducted from October 1 to November 1. A new voters list for 326 wards was released under the leadership of deputy tehsildar Phatak (first name not known), who was reportedly not present even once during the campaign.

“We heard that she was unwell, and a couple of junior employees had to manage the entire process,” Suresh Yeole, spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mira-Bhayander, alleged.

As per the list available with DNA, Shivram Shetty is a resident of a bar & restaurant in Miragaon. He stays in room No 247-2-1 along with his 18 sons. Another shocking revelation concerns ward No 221. Here, the entire list is registered under the name of Asmita supermarket — a commercial complex with no residents. The market is owned by senior state-level Congress leader Muzaffar Hussain. Out of the 919 names in the list, 85% are without any ID card or photograph.  

The list also shows 500 voters from the Bundarwadi area in Bhayander (East). In reality, no such area exists. Every building in ward no. 229, the list states, has more than 30 people of different religions staying together per flat. Purna building in Jangid complex — ward no. 281 — has 14 flats and around 40 residents.

The list, however, shows 354 residents. Only 12 names out of these were found to be correct.

Yatri and Mili bars in ward no. 306 are shown as residential areas housing 70 ‘residents’ belonging to different castes and communities. And one Rama Narayan Pujari is the father of all the 70, says the list.

Yeole said, “The civic elections are nearing, and the list must be rectified before that. We have already registered complaints with the collector; he has assured us that he will look into the issue. As per the 2011 census, the population of Mira-Bhayander constituency is about 10 lakh, but only 3.33 lakh voters have been enlisted so far.”

Anil Sawant, Congress corporator in Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation too admitted to the discrepancies, and said they need to be corrected at the earliest. “The election authority of Thane district has only 15 to 20 employees to manage the entire district, which has population of more than 1 crore. Considering this, there are chances that they too may have committed some mistakes while preparing the voters list, but that doesn’t mean it’s justified,” he added.