Maharashtra Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti elections to be held on Saturday

Mumbai: Elections to 12 Zilla Parishads and 125 Panchayat Samitis in Maharashtra will be held on Saturday, February 7.

Adequate arrangements including police deployment have been made to ensure peaceful polling, the State Election Commission (SEC) said.

Elections to most local bodies in Maharashtra were pending since 2022.

A total of 7,438 candidates are in the fray for 731 Zilla Parishad (ZP) and 1,462 Panchayat Samiti seats.

Elections will be held across Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, Dharashiv and Latur districts.

The polling was originally scheduled for February 5, but it was postponed following the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in an air crash on January 28 and the subsequent declaration of three days of state mourning.

Voting will start at 7.30 am on Saturday and conclude at 5.30 pm. Counting of votes will begin at 10 am on February 9, after which the model code of conduct will be lifted.

Of 731 ZP seats, 369 are reserved for women. Besides, 83 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes, 25 for Scheduled Tribes and 191 for Other Backward Classes. A total of 2,624 candidates are in the fray for the reserved seats.

Among the 1,462 Panchayat Samiti seats, 731 are reserved for women. Seats have also been reserved for Scheduled Castes (166), Scheduled Tribes (38) and Other Backward Classes (342). As many as 4,814 candidates are contesting the Panchayat Samiti elections.

The electorate includes 1,06,33,269 male voters, 1,01,86,965 female voters and 468 voters from other categories. As many as 25,471 polling stations have been set up across the state.

Around 1.28 lakh personnel have been deployed for election duty, including 125 returning officers and 125 assistant returning officers.

The Commission has arranged sufficient number of electronic voting machines including 51,537 control units and 1,10,329 ballot units, and officials have been trained to handle the voting process, the SEC said.

Each voter will cast two votes — one for ZP constituency and another for the Panchayat Samiti electoral division. The ZP ballot will be displayed on a white ballot unit, while the Panchayat Samiti ballot will be on a pink ballot unit, the poll body said.

Voters can find their names and polling stations on ‘Matadhikar’ mobile application of the SEC and access the voter list through the Commission’s website.

Special facilities including ramps, wheelchairs and toilets have been made available at polling stations for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, pregnant women and women with infants, the SEC said.

State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare appealed to voters to exercise their franchise in large numbers, saying local body elections play a key role in shaping the future of villages and strengthening democracy.