SIR battle begins: Parties deploy booth armies across Maharashtra | Mumbai News

BJP launches statewide monitoring drive

The BJP has directed its cadre to ensure that none of its voters are omitted from the electoral rolls while also scrutinising the lists for alleged ineligible entries.

The party has already held multiple meetings in Mumbai and instructed district units to organise similar sessions. Earlier this month, state BJP president Ravindra Chavan chaired a meeting attended by around 700 party functionaries, including MPs, MLAs and office bearers.

The BJP has also launched a door-to-door awareness campaign based on its Panna Pramukh model, asking workers to verify voter details family by family and map every society, community and locality.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiyya, who has been tasked with training party workers on the SIR process, said, “Maharashtra BJP should take lessons from West Bengal on SIR where 64 lakh ineligible votes were deleted. Though Trinamool Congress may have blamed the SIR for their defeat, the fact remains that our objections about illegal votes were upheld by both the Election Commission and Supreme Court.”

According to Somaiyya, “At least fifty lakh ineligible voters are there in Maharashtra. We will ensure they don’t make it to the list.”

“There are large cases of duplicate and double names. Along with that there are illegal Bangladeshis who have also enrolled themselves as voters. We have urged our party to closely monitor SIR at every assembly constituency and booth,” he added.

The BJP has already shortlisted BLAs across all 288 Assembly constituencies and plans to monitor the exercise across 355 tehsils, 36 districts and nearly 40,000 villages.

Congress launches ‘Utha SIR Jage Vha’ campaign

The Congress has unveiled its statewide campaign titled ‘Utha SIR Jage Vha’ and assigned senior leaders to oversee the process in all 288 Assembly constituencies.

“There are 125 seats in the state out of 288 which the party did not contest for the last 25 years and still we are getting people to work as booth level agents is an extremely positive sign for us,” Abhijeet Sapkal, state convener of the Congress campaign on SIR, said.

The party has appointed senior leaders, including Balasaheb Thorat, Satej Patil and Amit Deshmukh, as BLA 1 in their respective constituencies. They have been tasked with appointing BLA 2 workers at every booth.

“We have named BLA 2 as Bharat Rakshak as they are the most crucial individuals who will ensure that no legitimate voter is deleted,” said Sapkal.

The Congress has formed 75 training teams that will travel across the state between June 2 and June 10 to train booth-level workers.

Shinde Sena appoints over 1.25 lakh BLAs

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has launched a statewide organisational exercise, appointing more than 1.25 lakh BLAs to oversee voter verification and strengthen the party’s grassroots network.

Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has instructed MPs, MLAs, ministers and coordinators to actively participate in the exercise and ensure the party reaches every booth.

During a recent review meeting, Shinde directed office bearers to appoint two BLAs in every constituency and conduct detailed reviews of voter lists. Party leaders said the BLAs would continue organisational work beyond the revision exercise.

According to the party, Shinde also sought updates on appointments, constituency visits and meetings conducted as part of the campaign.

NCP focuses on booth-level appointments

The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party has instructed ministers, legislators and office bearers to take the SIR exercise seriously and expedite appointments of BLAs across all Assembly constituencies.

Party president and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has emphasised the need to strengthen the organisation while ensuring that eligible voters are not left out of the electoral rolls.

“Our party president has asked to work on war footing during June 30 to July 29, when door-to-door enumeration process will begin,” said a senior party leader who attended the meeting.

UBT Sena focuses on preventing deletions

The Shiv Sena (UBT) has made prevention of wrongful voter deletions the centrepiece of its campaign.

According to party spokesperson Harshal Pradhan, MLA Aaditya Thackeray has been holding meetings and presentations on the issue for the past two months.

“He has been holding meetings in this regard for the last two months at Shiv Sena Bhavan with party leaders. He has been giving detailed presentations on how to tackle the issues raised during the SIR, how to ensure that the genuine voters are not deleted and how to oppose wrongful deletions during the process,” Pradhan said.

The party has called district presidents, legislators, MPs, office bearers and frontal organisation leaders to Mumbai in batches to prepare for the revision exercise.

NCP-SP alleges BJP strategy

The Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP has appointed zonal heads to coordinate SIR-related activities and oversee the appointment of BLA 1 and BLA 2 workers.

The party has accused the BJP of attempting to influence future electoral outcomes through the revision process.

“Our prediction is that the BJP wants to delete more than one crore voters in Maharashtra. The West Bengal model is likely to be replicated to ensure that the constituencies become safe for the BJP. This is nothing but the attempt of constituency delimitation from the back door,” said Sunil Mane, who has been given responsibility for north Maharashtra.