Mumbai, Nov. 26 -- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday began the long process of weeding out 1.1 million duplicate names in the draft voter list. The civic body clarified that these duplicate names correspond to 0.433 million voters whose names appear more than once-in some cases twice or thrice, and in one instance as many as 103 times. Booth-level officers and ward officials have begun visiting the homes of each voter whose name has appeared twice or multiple times, to get them to sign official documents promising to vote only in one ward. Since the BMC does not have the power to delete names from the voter lists, voters must declare which ward they will cast their vote in, after which other wards will be instructed not to allow them to vote there. A circular issued by the State Election Commission (SEC) on November 25 directed the BMC to take suo-motu responsibility for cleaning the list. Given the scale of the task, the civic body has been allowed time until one week before the election-when polling-station-wise voter lists are handed to political parties-to complete all corrections. "A training session will be held with all ward assistant commissioners and ward machinery on Friday," said additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Joshi. To facilitate the process, the SEC has created multiple channels for voters to check and correct duplicate entries. The BMC website now has a link where voters can search for their names and identify duplicates. Voter help desks will also be set up at all ward offices and at the BMC headquarters to help voters find their name on the roll and fill out forms to rectify the duplication. The civic body will also accept third-party objections about duplicate names. "No evidence is needed for such complaints. Officers on the ground will verify them," a BMC official said. The SEC said that, clerical errors, accidental duplication of names, and missing names that were present in the 2024 assembly elections must be corrected before the final polling station-wise voter lists are published....