Voters' list updated, 11 lakh names dropped

The voting percentage in the civic polls next month is likely to be higher, and it will be difficult for political parties to manipulate the voters' list, as the Collector's office has updated a ten-year old voters' list and has managed to delete more than 11 lakh names of non-existent voters in Mumbai.

These non-existent voters comprise names of those who have died, left the city or who are not eligible to vote. "The positive fallout of this exercise is that in this civic election, the city will see a rise in the voting percentage which will be accurate. Since in all these elections, even the non-existent voters were also featured in the list, voting percentage was low. In the 2012 civic election, the voting percentage in Mumbai was 43 per cent, it is now expected to go up to 50 per cent," said a senior civic official from the election department of the BMC.

He added, "This exercise was undertaken by chief election officers across the state. The list needed to be revised as the same list was being used for the last ten years. The work began after 2012 and it was a continuous process." While the city's current population is 1,24,42,373, the number of voters in the city has now decreased. In 2012, the city had 1,02,86,579 voters, and in 2017, the voter population has gone down to 91,20,811.

Earlier, 139 people had registered their objection against the new voters' list. State Election Commission had then addressed all the complaints and had resolved the discrepancies before releasing a final voters' list. The voters' list has been uploaded on the election commission's website.

While preparing the voters' list, it is compared with the old voter list as reference. Each time new voters who have registered their names after attaining 18 years are also included in the list. However, no one bothers to delete the names of deceased or those who have shifted their base from the city.

Usually, political parties keep their eye on names of new voters and non-existent voters, and the inflated voters' list is used for the 'benefit' of the candidates. Sanjay Deshmukh, Additional Municipal Commissioner in-charge of the election process in BMC said that when he was a Collector, he himself had approved the removal of at least five lakh names.

However, preparation of a new voters' list had started only after the 2014 General Elections. Meanwhile, talking to the media on Saturday, JS Saharia, Chief Election Commissioner said that 44,564 civic staff will be engaged at 7,433 booths and other election related duty. There will be 35,000 police personnel deployed in the city to keep the situation under control until the election process is completed.

Voters will be able to get information about their candidates from the election commission's website. "It is sad that last civic election saw only 43 per cent voters casting their votes. To increase the voting percentage, awareness programmes will be conducted at colleges, universities and residential societies. The Hotel Association will also be a part of it," said Saharia.