A Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) delegation, led by MLA Rohit Pawar and state unit chief Shashikant Shinde, on Monday, 17 August submitted a formal representation to Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chockalingam in Mumbai, demanding sweeping reforms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state's voter rolls.

Key Discrepancies Flagged

The delegation catalogued a range of operational, technical, and administrative failures in the SIR process. These included incomplete address details, physical verification hurdles, data mapping errors, duplicate entries, improper family mapping, and wrong address assignments. Pawar told reporters that while some of their concerns received satisfactory responses, several others were tied to the Central Election Commission and require action at that level.

Notably, Pawar disclosed that 1.08 crore names have already been removed from the voter list — a figure that formed a central point of the delegation's discussions with the CEO. He attributed a portion of the errors to excessive pressure on Booth Level Officers (BLOs), which he said was causing lapses in the verification process.

Reforms the Party Is Demanding

NCP (SP) presented a detailed set of recommendations. On ground verification, the party demanded strict door-to-door checks by BLOs, with a ban on shortcut 'Table Surveys.' Before classifying any voter as shifted, permanently shifted, or untraceable, officers must complete at least two home visits and make mandatory phone or SMS contact attempts.

On technology, the delegation called for mandatory GPS and geo-tagging, timestamps, and photographic evidence for every verification visit. It also sought strict limits on interference by Booth Level Agents (BLA-2) and regular digital audits of BLO logins, devices, IP addresses, and SIR app usage.

The party further proposed a real-time open dashboard at the district level, publishing all additions, deletions, and corrections. Proposed voter deletion lists should be made publicly available for appeals and hearings within three months.

Technology Integration Sought

The delegation urged adoption of OTP-based verification, AI tools, facial recognition, and fuzzy matching algorithms, along with integration with the National Data Integration Model to curb duplicate entries. It also sought district-level monitoring committees, special review mechanisms for wrong-mapping cases, SOP training for BLOs, and the appointment of additional staff.

Accountability Measures

The representation demanded strict administrative and disciplinary action against officers found guilty of negligence, skipped verifications, or incorrect entries. Pawar emphasised that the submission was intended as a constructive effort to improve accuracy and public trust in the electoral system, and not to undermine confidence in it.

This comes amid broader national scrutiny of voter list revisions ahead of upcoming electoral cycles, with opposition parties across states raising concerns about deletions and data integrity in SIR exercises.