Clash erupts in Malegaon civic body over appointment of ‘voter assistants’ for special intensive revision

Nashik: A general body meeting of the Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC) on Thursday turned into a political battlefield as the ruling coalition and opposition clashed over the implementation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list.The debate centred on a controversial proposal to appoint local youths to assist booth-level officers (BLOs) in carrying out awareness drives among voters about the SIR, which is being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI), and also to assist in the process. The meeting was chaired by mayor Nasreen Bano Shaikh.The ruling benches, led by the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra (ISLAM) party and supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP) advocated for the appointment of assistants to BLOs to speed up the SIR process."We argued that the existing BLOs are overburdened and additional manpower is essential to assist them for creating awareness among voters, facilitating documents required and more. This is just in favour of citizens," said Mustaqueem Dignity of SP.However, the opposition All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) strongly countered the move, citing two primary concerns, namely lack of provisions and transparency risks.The latter argued that there is no legal framework or budget within the municipal code to appoint private individuals or provide them with an honorarium for election-related duties. They also raised doubts regarding the impartiality of such "assistants", fearing that political appointments could lead to the manipulation of voter data or unauthorized deletions.AIMIM corporator Khalid Parvez asked, "Is there a specific budgetary provision within the MMC's estimates to provide an honorarium to such assistants for the BLOs if appointed? Furthermore, under which specific rules, municipal or state, should these appointments be carried out?"Deputy mayor Shan-e-Hind Ahmed provided a response to these queries that failed to satisfy the opponents, resulting in a verbal altercation between the ruling and opposition members, that culminated in a physical scuffle. The dispute was finally brought to an end after Shiv Sena corporators intervened to mediate. Following this commotion, AIMIM corporators registered their protest against the ruling party.The mayor then adopted the resolution and it will now be sent to the district election office (DEO), the collector of Nashik, for approval.