Public toilet, railway station as voters' address: MNS raises 'vote chori' charges in Navi Mumbai electoral rolls

Navi Mumbai: Serious irregularities in the Navi Mumbai city’s electoral rolls have come to light, with a public toilet, the official bungalow  of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Commissioner, and even Nerul suburban railway station appearing as residential addresses for registered voters.

The findings were highlighted by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which has demanded an immediate audit of the voter lists. 

Party representatives say that such entries cannot be dismissed as clerical errors.

“A public toilet is not anyone’s residence. Yet it appears in the voter list. What more proof is needed that the verification process has collapsed?” said Gajanan Kale, president of MNS Navi Mumbai and party spokesperson.

He said the presence of 127 voter registrations at the civic chief’s official residence alone should have triggered red flags.

“This is not just a technical lapse. This points to deliberate negligence or collusion. If such bogus entries remain, they can influence election outcomes,” Kale added.

Civic groups say the issue directly threatens electoral credibility. Civic activist and Human Chain Online convenor B N Kumar said: “When the authenticity of the voter list is in doubt, the democratic process itself is shaken. This is beyond politics. It is about trust in the system.”

The revelations come at a time when several cities across India are reporting arbitrary deletions, ghost entries and suspicious address patterns in electoral rolls.

Residents, meanwhile, say the contrast is stark: while many genuine voters struggled to find their names in previous election cycles, unverifiable new names continue to appear with ease.

With similar complaints surfacing in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and parts of Delhi, the Navi Mumbai developments are increasingly being viewed as part of a wider national pattern, not an isolated lapse.

Civic groups and activists are urging the Election Commission of India to step in directly and conduct a transparent, on-ground verification audit to restore public faith before upcoming elections.