Island city of Mumbai has added just 3,389 voters since November 2022 – Times of India

MUMBAI: The island city of Mumbai added a total of only 3,389 voters between November 2022 and January 5, when the final electoral roll of the state was published. Mumbai suburban region did a little better by increasing its electoral tally by 32,113 voters.
Mumbai, though, lagged far behind other urban areas such as Thane and Pune that added more than twice the number of voters.

Thane voter count went up by 79,562 during the same timespan and that of Pune’s voters increased by 74,470. The addition to the electoral roll takes into account the voters added and those deleted owing to corrections.
Given its population, Mumbai has the highest number of voters in the state at 96.3 lakh. Officials say urban apathy and shortage of booth level staff in Mumbai could have impacted voter registrations prior to the publication of the electoral roll.
“The low voter additions in Mumbai certainly reflects urban apathy and is cause for concern. However, there was a tremendous crunch in booth level staff drawn from the municipality, which visits different areas to register voters. Only 25% of the staff required was available,” said the state’s chief electoral officer Shrikant Deshpande.
He said booth level staff drawn from the municipality were mainly tied up with Covid-related duties. The drive to add voters was conducted between November 9 and December 8, 2022.
Interestingly, women outstrip men when it comes to the rise in voters in the city. In the island city, 809 men and 2,567 women were added to the electoral roll between November 2022 and January 2023. In the suburbs, 13,559 men were added compared to 18,557 women. “We have taken special efforts to improve the registration of women voters across the state,” said Deshpande.
The most populous districts expectedly recorded the highest number of voters. After Mumbai, the districts with the highest voter count were Pune (79.5 lakh), Thane (62 lakh), Nashik (46 lakh) and Nagpur (41 lakh).
Sindhudurg had the lowest voter count in the state with only 6.7 lakh voters. Officials said that a large section of the population works in Mumbai and Goa and is likely to be registered as voters in those cities.
Interestingly, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in the Konkan have more female than male voters. Ratnagiri has 6.9 lakh female voters and 6.4 lakh male voters. Sindhudurg has 3.37 lakh female voters and 3.35 lakh male voters. “This is perhaps because a large number of men from these districts live and work in Mumbai,” said Deshpande.