Aaditya Thackeray flags Maharashtra SIR draft roll discrepancies, claims five lakh voters missing from lists

Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray has questioned the Election Commission of India ECI over alleged discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision SIR draft electoral roll asking where 790 lakh voters went after the number of registered voters fell between May and August 2026Thackeray also claimed that five lakh voters whose names appeared in the electoral rolls for the Lok Sabha Maharashtra Assembly and Mumbai civic elections were missing from both the SIR draft roll and the list of Absent Shifted Dead or Duplicate ASDD votersAddressing the issue Thackeray said his party had initially supported the SIR exercise in Maharashtra believing it was necessary to identify duplicate and allegedly bogus votersldquoIf you ask me earlier we had faith in SIR in Maharashtra because we thought it was needed Our Booth Level Agents BLAs tried to cover as much ground as possible In Mumbai nearly 100 per cent BLAs were deployed and across several districts 100 per cent BLAs were stationedrdquo he saidHe explained that BLAs were tasked with accompanying Booth Level Officers BLOs during doortodoor enumeration to help prepare an accurate electoral rollAaditya Thackeray questions disappearance of 790 lakh votersThackeray cited alleged irregularities identified by his party during previous elections including the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections He claimed that 24500 allegedly fake or bogus voters had been identified in his Worli constituency aloneReferring to Mumbairsquos electoral rolls he said that of the 131 crore voters his party had raised suspicions about 30 lakh entries due to alleged duplicate and multiple registrations as well as names linked to addresses where he claimed no houses existedThackeray further said that the party had submitted a list of 17 lakh allegedly bogus voters to the ECI while studying the electoral roll for the Mumbai civic elections According to him the party was assured that the discrepancies would be addressed through the SIR exerciseHowever he questioned the change in the voter count recorded in two communications from the Election CommissionldquoOn May 26 2026 we received a letter from the Election Commission which showed the number of voters as 98644413 On August 31 2026 we received another letter from the Election Commission which showed the number of voters as 97854049 We want to know where have the 790364 voters gonerdquo he saidThackeray questioned whether these voters were duplicates or ldquoghost votersrdquo and directed his criticism at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh KumarClaims five lakh voters missing from SIR and ASDD listsThackeray also alleged that five lakh voters whose names appeared in the electoral rolls for the Lok Sabha Assembly and Mumbai civic elections were missing from both the SIR draft roll and the ASDD listldquoThese five lakh voters must be in at least one list either the SIR draft roll or ASDD The Election Commission has no answer to thisrdquo he allegedThe claims raise questions about the reconciliation of electoral records across different elections The allegations could not be independently verified from the information providedQuestions discrepancies in Bhiwandi East voter listDuring his presentation Thackeray highlighted what he described as discrepancies in the electoral roll for the Bhiwandi East Assembly constituencyHe said the constituency had 373659 registered voters of whom 191691 cast their votes in the 2024 Assembly elections However he claimed the SIR draft roll listed only 191446 votersQuestioning the difference Thackeray asked whether the missing voters had been classified as duplicates or ghost voters or had shifted to other states He argued that their names should have appeared either in the draft roll or the ASDD listRaises concerns over notices to voters in MahimThackeray also cited an example from the Mahim Assembly constituency where he claimed 900 voters were facing difficulties despite having electoral records dating back to 2002According to him the votersrsquo names appeared in the 2002 draft SIR roll and in subsequent electoral records including the latest SIR draft roll However he alleged that their details were not being mapped by the software prompting the Election Commission to issue notices asking them to establish their eligibility and residence in IndialdquoIf this is the situation in one Assembly constituency then think what must be the situation in other constituenciesrdquo he saidThackeray further alleged that in some cases BLOs and BLAs had not reached voters before they were marked as unmarked or absent raising concerns about the enumeration process and the accuracy of the draft electoral roll