Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supremo Raj Thackeray on Sunday joined forces to lead a major protest march in Mumbai against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls.
The movement, dubbed the Virat Garjana Morcha (Grand Roar March), kicked off from the Metro Cinema in South Mumbai and passed through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters. Leaders of the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) were also in attendance at the agitation.
CEC Gyanesh Kumar (Left) and Thackeray cousins (Right)
Raj Thackeray voices demands for end to SIR, EVM voting
Addressing thousands of supporters at the march, Raj Thackeray raised demands for the complete withdrawal of the SIR exercise in Maharashtra and urged the country to return to ballot papers for casting votes instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
He remarked, “The SIR process in Maharashtra must be completely scrapped. Voting through EVMs in the country should be stopped, and we should go back to voting through ballot papers.”
He further questioned the deletion of voters during the electoral roll revision process, claiming that the number of votes could not simply dip without explanation.
He asserted, “I have been saying since 2017-18 that there is something wrong here. The number of votes cannot suddenly decrease.”
Continuing his attack against the CEC, he alleged that the issue extended beyond the Election Commission (EC) and concerned the manner in which the government was being run. He added, “Our anger is about how this government is being run and through what means it is being run. The Election Commission will not decide who should be in power; the people will decide.”
On the other hand, Uddhav Thackeray alleged that Gyanesh Kumar had snatched away people’s voting rights. Questioning the stated purpose of the SIR exercise, he asked how many Bangladeshi immigrants had actually been identified and had been eradicated from the electoral rolls.
Over 2 cr voters missing from draft roll
The Thackeray cousins resorted to protests over the exclusion of more than 2.06 crore electors from Maharashtra’s draft electoral roll following the SIR. As per statistics, before the revision exercise, Maharashtra had 9.78 crore registered voters.
The data released in August this year revealed that more than 7.71 crore electors (78.86%) of the previous electorate, figured in the draft roll.
The draft list names around 3.95 crore men, 3,75 crore women and 3,087 third-gender voters. Officials said enumeration forms pertaining to 2.06 crore people could not be collected as they were untraceable, dead or had shifted their residences.
A snap from the march
Final electoral roll due on November 4
Eligible voters, whose names were allegedly missing from the draft roll, were allowed to file claims and objections until September 30, 2026. The final electoral roll is slated to be published on November 4, 2026.
The Mumbai march surfaced two days after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) staged a ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ at the Shivaji Park in Mumbai against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.