15 January,2026 02:05 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Mumbai voters at a polling station for BMC Election 2026 on Thursday. (Pic/Satej Shinde)
A fresh controversy erupted amid the ongoing BMC Election 2026 after voters faced major issues in finding their booth number. One of the voters in Mumbai's Andheri alleged that he was not able to find the booth where he was supposed to cast his vote. The voter slip was provided by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra State Election Commission days before the civic polls.
Sunil Warrier, an Andheri resident, while expressing his concern over the development, said, "The voter slips provided by BMC/EC did not mention booth numbers, while those distributed by political parties had them. I had to stand in a queue to find my booth. The BLO (booth-level officers), who was using a laptop, said he was not given any training for this."
"After a short but impatient search, I was told where to go. However, the BLO and the returning officer were extremely polite and patient with my queries," added Warrier.
He said that the queue to find out the polling booths was longer than the ones at the booths.
"It took me about 20 minutes from 7.30 am [to cast the vote], when actually it should have taken only three minutes of my time," stated Warrier.
Hitting out at the authorities over the use of marker pens while marking the fingers of the voters, he added, "This was not the case during the earlier elections. I was also surprised that a marker pen was being used instead of the indelible ink. I allowed it as an illegality of this nature couldn't have been done. But there was no information either in newspapers or on the ECI website about this new method of marking voters."
In another scenario in Mumbai's Malad area, volunteers were seen assisting voters on polling day as confusion prevailed over polling booths and polling centre locations, leading to delays and crowding at several centres.
With many voters unable to locate their names or assigned booths in the electoral rolls, volunteers stepped in to help people search for their details in printed voter lists and guide them to the correct booths.
In Borivali, a voter faced difficulties in finding his and his wife's names in the voter list. Furthermore, the voter was eventually asked to go back but was later helped by one of the locals. He will now have to wait in the queue again despite initially being the first one to stand at one of the polling stations at ward no 11.
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