The allegations surfaced days after the SEC extended the deadline for final publication of electoral rolls for all local body polls from December 5 to December 10.

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Mumbai, India, — The Mumbai unit of the Congress party on Friday alleged that the draft electoral roll for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections contains 1.1 million duplicate voter entries, prompting fresh concerns over the credibility of the voter-registration process in Maharashtra.

A Congress delegation led by Varsha Gaikwad, the party’s Mumbai chief and Lok Sabha MP, met State Election Commission (SEC) officials seeking clarification on what it called large-scale discrepancies in the draft list. The party demanded that the SEC publicly release a complete list of duplicate entries and specify where each appears in the voter roll.

The allegations surfaced days after the SEC extended the deadline for final publication of electoral rolls for all local body polls from December 5 to December 10. The extension followed a surge in complaints across civic bodies regarding voters being incorrectly shifted between wards and multiple entries of the same individuals. Officials have warned that the delay could push local body elections back by at least two weeks.

Local body elections in Maharashtra — covering 27 municipal corporations, 243 nagar parishads and 289 panchayats — have been stalled since 2022 due to legal disputes over caste-based reservations. The Supreme Court has set January 31, 2026, as the final deadline for completing these polls. Elections for smaller councils and nagar panchayats are scheduled for December 2, with results due the next day.

Gaikwad said district collectors and civic officials had been unable to explain why the draft roll contained such anomalies or how they would be resolved. She warned that proposals requiring affidavits from voters flagged as duplicates could confuse citizens and suppress participation.

Congress has repeatedly accused election authorities of facilitating large-scale rigging in recent state polls, allegations the Election Commission has rejected.