Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Election Commission Tuesday announced the schedule for the nagar panchayat and nagar parishad polls in the state, scheduling the voting for 2 December and the counting of votes 3 December. However, the state EC did not announce the dates for polls to 29 municipal corporations.
There are 42 nagar panchayats and 246 nagar parishads in the state which are going to polls.
State election commissioner Dinesh Waghmare told the media the issue of “dubious” voters is also being addressed.
“We are in the process of identifying possible dubious voters. Wherever we find such duplicate voters, we will mark two stars in front of their names. We will go to their homes and verify them. And we will take undertaking from them on where they will be voting,” he said.
The opposition in Maharashtra has been raising the issue of alleged fake voters in the state, claiming that bogus voters are being added to the electoral roll. A delegation of leaders from the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena met Waghmare last month to discuss the issue of duplicate voters. They demanded the local body elections should be held only after the list is cleaned up.
“When the MVA delegation met us, they spoke about the issue. I have asked the Election Commission of India to give the voting list from 1 July to 15 October. But I haven’t received any communication yet,” Waghmare told the media Tuesday.
He, however, also said all local body polls will be conducted before 31 January 026 as it has been ordered by the Supreme Court.
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Delay in local body polls
It has been five years for some municipal corporations since their terms expired. Currently all 29 municipal corporations are run by state-appointed administrators. There are no elected members across corporations, nagar panchayats and municipalities.
These elections have been delayed for several reasons, including the Coronavirus pandemic, disputes over the OBC quota, the state government’s move to take control of ward delimitation exercise from the State Election Commission, and the last MVA government’s decision to increase the number of wards.
Maharashtra’s political landscape has undergone significant changes in recent years. Earlier, there were four major parties, but following the splits within the Shiv Sena and the NCP, the number has risen to six. The ruling Mahayuti alliance now comprises the BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), while the opposition MVA has the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT faction), and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).
After the 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections, in which the Mahayuti secured a historic majority, the MVA began questioning the authenticity of voter lists. It made claims of duplicate and dubious entries. Recently, Raj Thackeray’s MNS also joined the chorus of parties questioning the authenticity of the voter rolls.
On Saturday, the opposition parties, along with the MNS, organised a rally against what they called large-scale voter fraud. They alleged that around 96 lakh fake votes were added during the 2024 Assembly elections. They again demanded postponing the elections till the voter list is fixed.
However, on Tuesday Waghmare said elections cannot be postponed, confirming that all local body polls—including municipal corporation elections—will be conducted before 31 January 2026.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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