Maharashtra local body elections: Timeline for finalising draft electoral rolls likely to be extended

According to the present electoral rolls, the total number of voters in Mumbai is pegged at around 1.03 crore. Representation Pic/iStock

The State Election Commission (SEC) has hinted at extending the process timeline for finalising the draft electoral rolls for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls. According to the SEC officials, in a day or two, the official notification for the extension will be issued. "The commission is contemplating giving a few extra days to finalise the draft rolls," a senior SEC official said.

The daft voter list for the BMC polls was released on November 20. According to the current notification, the last date for anyone to raise objections if errors are found is November 27. December 5 is the last date for the administration to rectify errors and release the final draft rolls. However, several Opposition parties had raised objections over the faulty list and demanded a 21-day extension for the entire process.

Asked whether the deadline would be extended by three weeks, a senior BMC official stated that it was the prerogative of the SEC to decide on the same. "But seven to ten days are enough for the entire exercise. Hence, we expect the revised notification from the SEC to mention an additional time of 10 days for finalising draft rolls," the civic official added.

According to the present electoral rolls, the total number of voters in Mumbai is pegged at around 1.03 crore, and around 11 lakh are said to be duplicate names, of which nearly 4.3 lakh have been registered multiple times. With the SEC and BMC agreeing to the existence of errors, the poll body is considering the extension of the process timeline, but is confident of conducting the polls as per schedule.

The election to the BMC is scheduled before January 31, 2026, as per the deadline set by the Supreme Court. The last elections were held in 2017, and the five-year tenure of corporators ended in 2022. However, due to a pending petition over Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation, the elections were not conducted.

For nearly 25 years, the Shiv Sena (undivided) and the BJP ruled the BMC, but their alliance ended in 2017. That year, Shiv Sena won 84 seats, BJP 82, MNS seven (six later joined Uddhav Thackeray's party), Congress 29, NCP (9), and others (15). In 2022, Eknath Shinde - now one of Maharashtra's deputy chief ministers - split the Shiv Sena and became chief minister, and most of Uddhav's corporators subsequently joined his faction.