MUMBAI, Sept. 21 -- Amid the allegations of "vote chori" against the BJP, which has been accused by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi of adding/deleting names to voter lists in order to win elections, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has decided to personally undertake the task of verifying the Mumbai voter list before the upcoming BMC polls. The party has planned for its female workers to play a significant role in the exercise on account of their direct access to homes in the BMC's 227 wards. On Friday, Thackeray, as part of the preparations for the BMC election, held a meeting with party workers and women leaders at Shiv Sena Bhavan. Praising the women's wing and crediting Shiv Sainiks with all the victories in the BMC elections thus far, he urged them to prepare aggressively for the forthcoming polls. Thackeray has in the past often expressed the need to cross-check the voters list before the civic polls to prevent bogus voting. On Friday too, he pointed to a report in the Marathi media regarding an increase of 1.4 million voters in the electoral roll after the assembly elections last year and said that party workers needed to keep an eye on such drives and their outcome. The Sena (UBT) chief told female workers that as women, with an ability to connect directly with the womenfolk of all households, they would be able to identify the members in each home. "Keep an eye on every home to ensure that only genuine voters are listed in the electoral roll and bring any kind of manipulation to my notice," he said. "Publish the voters list of that area on the notice board of our party offices so that everyone in the area will know whose name has been added or deleted." A Sena (UBT) leader said that as per Thackeray's directives, the party would undertake the verification of the voters list from October, after the release of the new electoral roll for the local body elections. The party will provide the electoral rolls to each shakha (branch office), and men and women officer-bearers from the shakha will scrutinise the lists. "We have several gat pramukhs in each shakha, and they will screen the voters list in every booth," said the leader, adding that with an average of 50 gat pramukhs in each ward, the party had over 10,000 gat pramukhs across Mumbai. "Women activists will play a key role in this drive, as they can go to all the homes and even inquire in the neighbourhood about homes where doubtful names are found," he said. "Women activists are also more sincere in such work." Another Sena (UBT) leader added that Thackeray had told them about the regular inclusion of names in voter lists right after the Lok Sabha elections last year. "After the assembly elections, around 1.8 million voters across the state have been added to the list and 400,000 have been deleted," he said. "We will verify what these additions and deletions are at the booth level in the BMC wards." Former MLA and mayor Vishakha Raut, said that the Sena (UBT) women's wing was always strong in the BMC, and the party had a network of women activists in all 227 wards who would play a key role in verifying the voters list. "In our party, we have women gat pramukhs in each ward who look after booth-level election management," she said. "They have access to all the homes in their area and will check if the names of our supporters have been deleted and fake names have been added to the voter list."...