The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said his team detected over 22,000 discrepancies in Worli alone, urging the Election Commission to take immediate corrective action.
BY PC Bureau
October 27 — In a dramatic revelation that could shake the foundations of Mumbai’s civic polls, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray on Monday alleged a massive voter list manipulation scam, claiming that thousands of fake and duplicate entries have been deliberately inserted into the city’s electoral rolls ahead of the long-delayed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Speaking at the ‘Nirdhar Melava’ event at the Worli Dome, Aditya presented what he described as “concrete evidence” of widespread irregularities, supported by visual data, voter rolls, and on-ground survey findings. The presentation, modelled on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s voter list exposés in Delhi, drew an emphatic response from party workers and citizens’ groups who attended the event.
Party chief Uddhav Thackeray, who shared the stage, praised Aditya’s efforts and accused the ruling BJP of “systematically dismantling democracy through data manipulation.” He added that the alleged voter list tampering was “not merely administrative negligence, but an organised attempt to subvert electoral integrity in India’s financial capital.”
22,000 Discrepancies in Worli Alone
Aditya revealed that a constituency-level audit of the Worli voter list, conducted under his supervision over two months, had uncovered around 22,000 anomalies — including ghost voters, duplicate names, and inconsistent voter identification data.
“These are not small clerical errors,” he said. “When one finds 22,000 irregularities in a single constituency, it points to a well-planned attempt to distort the mandate. Democracy begins with clean voter lists — if they’re corrupted, elections lose meaning.”
He further claimed that similar manipulations could exist across other wards of Mumbai and urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct a comprehensive, third-party audit before the municipal elections are announced.
BREAKING NEWS 🚨
MASSIVE EXPOSE by Shiv Sena leader @AUThackeray 🔥🔥
“After the Lok Sabha elections, 16,000 fake voters were added to the Worli Assembly constituency.”
Aditya Thackeray’s major revelation on Vote Chori by the ECI + Modi + BJP pic.twitter.com/9pHduGLgcT
— Ravinder Kapur. (@RavinderKapur2) October 27, 2025
Bogus Voters, Duplicate EPICs, and Phantom Addresses
Aditya’s presentation highlighted several categories of alleged discrepancies:
- Voters ‘reborn’: The name of deceased voter Narhari Kulkarni, removed from the Lok Sabha rolls, mysteriously reappeared in the Vidhan Sabha list.
- Duplicate EPICs: 28 voters were listed without photo identity (EPIC) numbers; 133 voters shared the same EPIC number under different names; and 3,856 individuals had been issued two voter ID cards each — bringing the total to 7,810 fake or duplicate cards.
- Data mismatches: Investigators identified 502 voters sharing identical names with relatives, 720 with mismatched surnames between fathers and sons, and 643 with gender errors.
- Suspicious ages: At least 113 voters were shown as aged over 100 years, alongside several with missing or distorted photographs.
- Phantom addresses: Field verification revealed 38 voters registered at a single small room barely large enough for five people, while 46 voters were listed at the address of a demolished Ghasitaram Sweet Shop that no longer exists.
“These examples prove beyond doubt that manipulation has occurred at multiple levels — from data entry to ground verification,” Aditya said. “It’s an organised network, not a coincidence.”
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‘This Is a Scam, Not a Mistake’
Calling the situation a “systemic assault on democracy,” Aditya said the irregularities amounted to more than clerical mistakes.
“This is not an error. It’s a scam,” he declared. “The people of Mumbai deserve transparency and the right to vote without deception. We demand immediate intervention by the Election Commission and a criminal probe into how these anomalies were introduced.”
He also directed Shiv Sena (UBT) functionaries in all 227 BMC wards to launch their own local voter audits and maintain close surveillance during the ongoing roll revision process. “Every bogus vote cancels out a genuine one,” he reminded workers.
Uddhav Thackeray: ‘Democracy Is Being Digitally Hijacked’
In his address, Uddhav Thackeray accused the ruling BJP of “digitally hijacking democracy through data tampering.” He said that if voter manipulation could occur in Mumbai — “a city with one of the most tech-savvy electorates and active civil societies” — it could happen anywhere in India.
He also urged opposition parties to unite on the issue, calling for a joint delegation to meet the Election Commission and demand a citywide audit of electoral data. “The manipulation of voter lists is the first step toward rigging elections. If this goes unchecked, the next generation will inherit a democracy without meaning.”
The BMC elections — pending since March 2022 due to repeated delays and administrative changes — have already become a flashpoint between Shiv Sena (UBT) and the BJP-Shinde government. With Mumbai’s municipal body under administrative rule, both sides view control of the civic corporation as a symbolic and strategic prize ahead of the 2026 Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Political observers say the voter list controversy could reignite opposition unity efforts and put renewed pressure on the Election Commission to ensure a fair contest.
