Maharashtra sees 29 lakh new voters in 2 years

Around 53,005 Mumbaikars, who would have voted for the first time in the forthcoming municipal corporation polls, will be disappointed.

The election branch of the state government rejected these 53,005 applications for new voters’ enrollment.

“The rejection of the applications for the new enrollment was based on the duplication of application and non-compliance of the formalities,” said an official from the Mantralaya.

In November 2011, the election branch had undertaken a special drive to enroll maximum number of voters for the municipal corporation and zilla parishad elections.

Of nearly the 23 lakh applications, including 21.12 lakh applicants for the new enrolments, in the state, 19.15 lakh were cleared by the authorities.

The branch has recently submitted the fresh list of voters to the state election commission for the ensuing municipal corporation and zilla parishad elections, which will be held on February 7 and February 16 respectively.

With the latest addition, there are 7.87 crore voters in Maharashtra. The number has increased by 29 lakh in two years from 7.58 crore in the 2009 assembly elections.

In Mumbai, the island city registered a rise of 1.07 lakh, while the suburbs saw 2.74 lakh new voters in the last two years.

The response to the election branch’s drive has been tremendous, said the official from Mantralaya.

“Elections for municipal corporations, zilla parishads and even panchayat samitis are very important on the local level. This has been the reason for the tremendous growth in the voter enrollment,” he said.

“Political parties too played a major role in encouraging the youth to enrol to safeguard their vote banks.”