A voter-list revision exercise in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is reportedly leading some migrant residents to cancel their registration in the cities where they currently live and retain their names in electoral rolls in their native villages, Loksatta – Thane reported on Wednesday.
The report said the change has emerged during the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, process, which is intended to identify and address duplicate voter registrations. Residents who were listed both in their native villages and in their current urban locations have reportedly been required to retain registration at only one of the two places.
According to the report, several migrants living in cities across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region have chosen to keep their voter registration in their native villages rather than in the urban areas where they work or reside. The stated reasons include access to government schemes and concessions in rural areas, family and property ties, and the desire to retain a social and administrative connection with their villages.
The issue affects residents of the wider metropolitan region, including parts of Thane district and the Vasai-Virar area. The report links the trend to long-standing migration into Mumbai and its surrounding cities, including workers who have moved from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and villages elsewhere in Maharashtra for employment.
Loksatta cited the case of Rama Shankar, who lives in Nalasopara but retained his voter registration in Bhagtoली, Uttar Pradesh. He said his name on the village electoral roll helped him access government schemes and social benefits there, and that he therefore chose not to register in Nalasopara.
Another Nalasopara resident, Pravin Pandey, reportedly cancelled his registration in the city and retained it in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. He said his family and property remained in the village and that maintaining an identity there was an important reason for his decision.
The report also said duplicate registration has remained a recurring concern during elections because voters listed at more than one location may potentially be able to vote in both places. The SIR exercise has brought the issue into focus by requiring affected voters to choose one registration location.
The reported shift raises a practical question for urban electoral administration: whether a person’s voter registration should primarily follow their current place of residence or remain linked to their native village because of family ties, property ownership or access to rural benefits. The report did not provide consolidated figures for the number of registrations cancelled in Mumbai Metropolitan Region cities or the number retained in rural constituencies.
The voter-list revision process is continuing, with the reported changes expected to be reflected as authorities review registrations held at multiple locations. Further official data would be needed to establish the scale of the decline in urban voter rolls and its distribution across individual municipalities.
