Mumbai’s BMC elections in January 2026 face a major challenge as over 1.1 million duplicate voters. [Photo: PTI]
Mumbai is gearing up for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, scheduled for January 2026, but a major concern has emerged ahead of the polls. Authorities have detected 1.10 million duplicate voter entries in the draft electoral roll, raising serious questions about voter accuracy and the fairness of the upcoming civic elections. The BMC, India’s richest municipal corporation, released the draft list on November 20, 2025. Citizens can file objections and corrections until November 27.
The BMC said that 10.6% of the 10.34 million voters appear more than once in the draft rolls. This discovery was made using specialised software provided by the State Election Commission (SEC).
The issue is spread across Mumbai’s three administrative zones:
Officials said the software has “star-marked” names that appear more than once so that citizens and political parties can verify and raise objections.
An SEC official explained the reason behind the unusually high number of repeats. “A large number of duplicate voter entries is due to the city's high floating population and the absence of a special summary revision this year. Areas like Mumbai, Thane, and Raigad, which have high migration rates, reported the most repeated entries,” the official said.
The detection of duplicate voters comes at a time when political parties are already accusing each other of manipulating voter lists. Last month, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) held a large protest called Satyacha Morcha.
They demanded that no local body polls should take place until the voter rolls are fully verified and corrected. The SEC’s decision to highlight duplicate entries is expected to intensify political debate ahead of the polls.
The last BMC elections were held on February 21, 2017. The elected body’s term ended in March 2022, but elections were delayed. Since then, an administrator has run the civic body for more than three years, an unprecedented situation in Mumbai’s municipal history.
Several reasons contributed to the delay:
Political analysts say the unusually high number of duplicate entries could significantly influence the 2026 civic elections. The BMC is regarded as the most powerful municipal body in India, overseeing a substantial budget and key urban services.
Experts believe parties may treat voter-list accuracy as a core campaign issue. A clean and verified voter roll may become a deciding factor in the political fight for Mumbai, a city where migration, mobility, and shifting populations make electoral boundaries especially complex.
