'Who Deleted My Vote?': Missing Names, Wrong Booth Info Wreak Havoc in BMC Polls

Scores of Mumbaikars set out to vote only to find names missing at polling stations, clueless officials, & chaos.

(Photo: PTI)

On the morning of 15 January, Ashutosh from Mumbai's Kandivali suburb set out to vote in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. But upon reaching the polling station, he was shocked to find his name missing.

"I checked our names in the online list two days ago. We were not worried because we had just voted in the Assembly elections a year ago and also in the general elections. But I still checked because the local party volunteers in the area had been reminding people to check their names beforehand. But at the station, I was told right at the entrance that our names were not in their list," he told The Quint.

Like Ashutosh, scores of Mumbaikars set out to vote early in the morning on Thursday only to face chaos and confusion over voter lists at polling stations, booth officials who could hardly help, and being tossed from one station to another to exercise their right to vote.

Several voters reported that their names were missing from the electoral rolls when they arrived to cast their ballots, despite verifying their names and polling stations on the Election Commission website, leading to officials scrambling to assist people in locating their details.

(Photo: PTI)

In nearby Kalyan, several voters reportedly returned home disappointed after they could not find their names on the electoral rolls and were unable to vote. Separate instances of booth slips lacking booth numbers have also added to delays and confusion for voters at stations in areas like Andheri and Borivali.

Claims and reports of voters being able to wipe off the indelible ink from their fingers and the permanent markers have also emerged. Several Mumbaikars spoke to The Quint to narrate their ordeal.

'Who Gave You the Right to Delete Our Names?': 40 Names Missing from Same Building

Parimal Wagh, a voter of Colaba, was able to vote, but not without facing his share of chaos.

"When I reached the polling station, the voter slip that I printed online mentioned my part number as 887. However, upon checking at the polling station, it turned out that this part number corresponded to someone else's name, which led to confusion and chaos while trying to locate my name," Wagh told The Quint.

"Eventually, it was found that my name was actually listed under part number 873 on the very next page. This delay occurred solely because the correct part number had not been updated on the website," he added.

Preeti Sompura, a voter from the H East ward in the Vakola suburb, said that in her building of about 40 people, all of whom voted in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2024, found their names missing from the physical list with EC officials at the polling station.

“We voted in both the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. When I arrived to vote for the H East ward of the Vakola municipal corporation, we were told that only six people from our building were listed. Over 40 people from my building voted in the previous elections," she said.

(Photo: PTI)

"The EC officials had no answer for this. They said these are lists they received from the BMC. I want to ask the EC and the BMC – who gave you the right to delete our names?" she added.

Another voter, Anish Shah, said that his name not only appeared at another polling station, but in a different ward altogether.

"Such mismanagement for the Mumbai elections, where I found my name on the voting list, but in some other area, where the corporators standing are not from the area I belong to," he said.

"My daughter's name does not show on the voting lists, but on the online EPIC website, it shows the area and the place to vote. Thank you for snatching the right to vote," he added.

State Minister Had to Visit 3 Polling Stations, MPs, Leaders Faced Confusion Too

Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik visited two polling centres in Navi Mumbai before finally being told that his name was at St Mary’s School in Kopar Khairane. His family members eventually voted at different centres.

"If a minister like me can have his name missing, one can imagine what might be happening to common voters," he told the media.

(Photo: X/Ganesh Naik)

Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) leader Anish Gawande said that the names of him and his family members were found at different polling stations.

"When I went to vote in ward number 193 in Prabhadevi, individuals who did not have the slip that mentions the exact polling station could not understand where to vote. This was accompanied by a complete crash of the Maha Voter SEC website. The only way to find your name was through one copy of the electoral roll that was placed at the desk outside the polling booth, with no polling agent or Election Commission official helping you to find your name," Gawande told The Quint.

"So, several people left because they were unable to find their names or couldn't go through thousands of pages for every constituency to find their name and polling booth assignment," he added.

"My parents and sisters were told that their names had been taken off the voter list. They finally went to a Shiv Sena (UBT) BLO who then checked on his app. We found that they had been shifted to a polling booth about 500 metres away from the one where I voted," he said.

"If they hadn't found that Shiv Sena person, they would not have known that their name was on the voter list somewhere. They would have gone home without voting, which is what a lot of people did," Gawande added.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi narrated a similar ordeal.

"Upon reaching my usual polling station, I discovered that my name was missing from the list. I was redirected to another location where I was able to cast my vote. I urge all Mumbaikars to vote in large numbers and to verify their polling booth details beforehand," she told the media.

While the Election Commission has not yet made an official statement on the discrepancies in the lists, it has responded to the videos of indelible ink being wiped off. However, the chaos over voting lists being reported from across corporations voting on Thursday paints a grim picture of the EC's state of affairs just 13 months after the state Assembly elections.