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As Maharashtra gears up for the much-awaited local body elections, likely to be held by the end of this year or early next year, the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) is preparing to launch district-level ‘war rooms’ across the state. According to sources within the party, these war rooms will serve as data hubs to identify alleged discrepancies in voter lists and compile objections to be sent to the Election Commission (EC) before the final electoral rolls are released. A senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader familiar with the development told News18 that the initiative gained momentum after the party’s recent ‘Nirdhar Melava’ rally in Mumbai, where UBT leader and Thackeray’s son Aaditya made a presentation exposing alleged large-scale irregularities in the voter lists in his Worli constituency. During the presentation, Aaditya claimed that several bogus voters had been added before the previous elections and demonstrated how fraudulent voter rolls were allegedly prepared. He also pointed out errors the Election Commission had “ignored”, urging all unit chiefs (Shakha Pramukhs) and their local teams to manually verify every voter and household entry. We have been saying constantly that elections in India haven’t been held in a free and fair way by the Election Commission of India. ? The election commission has allowed mass rigging in elections, by simply not performing its duty to purify the voter lists. Yesterday, we… pic.twitter.com/z5eGT5YBkX — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) October 28, 2025 Following his appeal, party workers across Mumbai and other districts reportedly began checking voter lists and flagging multiple errors — from duplicate entries to voters listed at non-existent addresses. “Within two days, the party office started receiving hundreds of calls and messages from workers reporting such discrepancies,” the source said. Encouraged by the response, the party leadership is now considering establishing dedicated ‘war rooms’ in each district to collect, verify, and consolidate this data systematically. These units will coordinate directly with the central team in Mumbai to file formal objections with the Election Commission. At the same rally, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray instructed party cadres to focus not only on campaigning but also on protecting the integrity of the voter rolls. “We must identify and correct these errors to prevent bogus and double voting,” he reportedly told the gathering. Aaditya cited specific instances, including 35 voters registered at a single small room, and another case where over 30 voters were listed under a sweet shop address that did not exist when verified by party workers. With both the Shiv Sena and the NCP now split, the upcoming local body elections — particularly the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls — are expected to become a high-stakes contest and a litmus test for all major political players in Maharashtra.
