Prithviraj Chavan Claims 27,000 Duplicate Voters in Karad South Assembly Seat

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan claimed on Monday, August 17, 2026, that over 27,000 duplicate voters were registered in his Karad South Assembly constituency. Presenting an analysis of electoral rolls across Karad South and five surrounding assembly constituencies, Mr. Chavan stated there were a total of 56,118 duplicate voter entries across the region.

Mr. Chavan stated that within his Karad South constituency alone, 21,132 individual voters had been registered 48,741 times. He noted that multiple entries featuring identical first names, middle names, and surnames appeared up to 15 times within the same constituency list under different Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) numbers.

The former Chief Minister confirmed that he has submitted the compiled data to the District Collector, requesting that the electoral roll be cleaned during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). He has also filed an election petition in the Bombay High Court.

Explaining why the analysis was presented in 2026, Mr. Chavan noted that the Election Commission of India no longer provides machine-readable voter lists. He explained that his team had to convert PDF files into spreadsheets to systematically cross-check the voter data across constituencies.

Highlighting specific examples from Karad, Mr. Chavan pointed to cases where individuals had duplicate entries with identical details but different EPIC numbers, including 29-year-old Rani Kate and 18-year-old Adke Sakshi Ashok. He also stated that the name Patil Sachin Shivaji appeared 15 times on the list, while Patil Sanjay Shankar appeared 14 times.

Mr. Chavan, who lost the 2024 Assembly election despite increasing his vote total to 1,00,150 from 92,296 in 2019, alleged that unnatural spikes in voter registrations between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections compromised the electoral outcome.