In a poignant return to Maharashtra's administrative nerve centre, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) president Sharad Pawar stepped into Mantralaya on Tuesday for the first time in three decades, leading an opposition delegation to address alleged irregularities in the voters' list ahead of upcoming local body elections. The visit, marking Pawar's re-entry into the state headquarters since resigning as chief minister in 1995, underscored a rare show of unity among rival opposition leaders amid rising concerns over electoral transparency.

Pawar, who last entered the building in 2012 as Union agriculture minister to inspect fire damage, joined Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray, Congress leaders like Balasaheb Thorat and Varsha Gaikwad, and representatives from Left parties in the high-profile meeting with Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam.

The delegation flagged serious discrepancies in the draft electoral rolls published on October 8, including duplicate entries, fictitious names, and instances where voters' ages appeared illogical—such as parents listed as younger than their children—potentially inflating the voter base to favour certain parties. These rolls, drawn from the Election Commission's July 1, 2025, update totalling 9.84 crore voters, are set to underpin polls for 29 municipal corporations, 247 municipal councils, 42 nagar panchayats, 32 zilla parishads, and 336 panchayat samitis, delayed since 2021 due to legal and administrative hurdles.

The opposition demanded immediate corrections, verification drives, and mandatory use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) to ensure fair play, echoing broader national debates on electoral integrity. Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) officials noted no formal complaints had been lodged despite recent additions of 14.71 lakh voters and deletions of 4.09 lakh since the 2024 assembly polls, but the delegation's intervention could prompt a special intensive revision deferred until January 2026 to avoid clashing with elections.

Pawar's political legacy adds weight to the occasion. The 84-year-old veteran, who began his career in 1967 as a Baramati MLA, served four terms as Maharashtra chief minister—first in 1978 at age 38 as the youngest in state history, followed by stints from 1988 to 1991, a brief 1993-1995 period ending with his resignation amid the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance's rise, and an interim 1980 role. His 2019 ouster from Congress to found the NCP and the 2023 split with nephew Ajit Pawar, who joined the ruling Mahayuti coalition, have kept him in opposition. Yet, Pawar's enduring influence—bolstered by recent overtures like sharing stages with Ajit loyalists—positions him as a unifying force against the BJP-led government. The meeting, held at Shiv Sena's Shivalaya headquarters beforehand, signals deepening Maha Vikas Aghadi ties ahead of a fiercely contested electoral season.

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As Maharashtra navigates these polls, delayed by Supreme Court directives for completion within four months from notification, the opposition's proactive stance highlights systemic vulnerabilities in voter registration, from arbitrary deletions to unverified additions that plagued the 2024 assembly elections, where Rahul Gandhi alleged over 70 lakh anomalous entries. Chockalingam assured the group of reviewing submissions, but with no timeline set, the episode reinforces calls for robust safeguards to restore public faith in the democratic process.

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