Mumbai, Nov 4 (PTI) Elections in 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats in Maharashtra will take place on December 2 and votes will be counted on December 3, State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Waghmare did not declare the election schedule for 29 municipal corporations, 32 zilla parishads, and 336 panchayat samitis where polls are due.
Polling will be held through EVMs to elect 6,859 members and 288 presidents in 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats on December 2, and counting of votes will be held on December 3, he said.
The number of eligible voters is 1.7 crore, he said, adding there will be 13,355 polling centres.
The last day to file nominations is November 17, and scrutiny will be conducted on November 18, he said. November 21 is the deadline to withdraw nominations. Election symbols and the list of candidates will be published on November 26.
The polling will be held as per the cut-off date of July 1, 2025, which may be considered for extension, Waghmare said.
The poll-bound local bodies include municipal councils with 20 to 75 members each and nagar panchayats (town councils) with up to 17 members each.
“The cut-off date of the electoral rolls is July 1, 2025. We have asked for the voter roll till October 15 from the ECI, and if we get the list, we will consider extending the cut-off date,” the State Election Commissioner said.
Replying to questions on the Opposition’s demand for holding polls only after correcting voters’ rolls, Waghmare said the poll schedule is announced as per directives of the Supreme Court to complete the election process before January 31, 2026.
He said the state election commission adopts the voter roll from the Election Commission of India.
Addressing the Opposition’s concerns on “double” voters, Waghmare said adequate measures have been taken to identify them.
He said the names of possible duplicate voters will be marked with a double asterisk.
“Poll officials will contact such electors and ask them to name the polling centre of their choice. Appropriate measures have been taken to address the issue of double voters in the list”, he added.
If no response is received from a voter marked as a possible duplicate, and the person turns up at a polling station, they will be required to give a written undertaking affirming that they have not voted elsewhere. Only after strict verification of their identity will they be permitted to cast their vote, the SEC said.
The Panchayati Raj system in Maharashtra is a three-tier system of rural local governance consisting of the Gram Panchayat at the village level, the Panchayat Samiti at the block level, and the Zilla Parishad at the district level.
A nagar parishad or municipal council administers smaller urban areas. It is responsible for local governance and urban development.
A nagar panchayat is a form of urban local governance for areas in transition from rural to urban, often with a population between 12,000 and 40,000. PTI MR VT NSK
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