Published on: Aug 23, 2025 07:18 am IST
Last week, 300 MPs protested against the ECI. Despite massive crowds attending Rahul Gandhi’s yatra in Bihar, the election commission is yet to take a clear stand
Mumbai: Backing the allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft) made by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said that his party has reviewed electoral rolls in Maharashtra and has found thousands of fake and duplicate entries. He said the NCP (SP) would soon come out with a detailed state-wide report.
Pawar said, “We are studying the electoral rolls thoroughly and will require two to three weeks after which we will approach the election commission. Though we do not have much hope from the poll body.” He added that he has no expectations left from the election commission after the dismissive way the poll-body has reacted to Rahul Gandhi exposing vote theft.
Last week, 300 MPs protested against the ECI. Despite massive crowds attending Rahul Gandhi’s yatra in Bihar, the election commission is yet to take a clear stand. “Whatever is going on Bihar has now become a national issue,” Pawar pointed out.
NCP (SP)’s chief spokesperson Jitendra Awhad said that a probe by party candidates Ashok Pawar from the Shirur constituency and Prashant Jagtap from the Hadapsar constituency, had revealed large-scale discrepancies in the electoral rolls.
Highlighting the results of the probe, Ashok Pawar said that the number of voters had risen by 49,837 between the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls and by another 32,319 between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in 2024. “So far, we have identified 27,000 voters with identical names across booths, false addresses and unrecognisable photographs,” he said. Ashok Pawar lost the Shirur constituency to the Ajit Pawar led NCP’s Dnyaneshwar Katke.
Jagtap alleged that 40,300 new voters were added in just five months between the Lok Sabha and assembly polls last year. “When we sought details from the election commission, access was denied,” Jagtap said and added that he has approached the Bombay High Court over alleged voter roll manipulation. Jagtap too lost the Hadapsar seat to NCP’s Chetan Tupe.
