Member of Legislative Assembly Abhay Patil, Mayor Mangesh Pawar, Deputy Mayor Vani Vilas Joshi and members of the Municipal Corporation attend a meeting on electoral mapping exercise in Belagavi. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
BJP MLA Abhay Patil complained that Electoral Commission of India mapping is not being done properly in parts of Belagavi district.
He told reporters in Belagavi on Tuesday that he would send a written complaint to the ECI office in New Delhi and Bengaluru.
He said that in a special meeting of the Belagavi City Corporation on Monday, several members complained to him that the names of several thousand of their voters were left uncharted.
“I have also received similar complaints from various party functionaries in the district. I think only about 20% names have been mapped in Belagavi city in the last three months. In my constituency Belagavi South, 60,000 names have been omitted from the first round of mapping. I have found that booth level officials (BLOs) are not attending their work properly. They are not doing their job. voters to places like anganwadis, schools and temples, and then mark them as voted in the last election, or not voted.
He said some members of the city corporation told him that some BLOs had left out the names of entire colonies or communities in some areas from the mapping exercise.
“This is unacceptable,” the MLA said.
Some members demanded that the mapping be done based on voter’s photo ID rather than residential address. This proposal will be sent to ECI, he said.
Deputy Mayor Vani Vilas Joshi told him that some BLOs had confided in her that they did not have mobile phones to download map mobile applications or did not know how to use them.
She demanded that BLOs receive more training.
Some members of the city corporation told the MLAs that the BLOs should be instructed to visit door to door along with the members of the city corporation jurisdiction in different areas.
“All this will be communicated to the ECI,” said Mr. Patil.
Published – 11 March 2026 20:31 IST
