MUMBAI: The civic polls in Maharashtra will finally begin with state election commissioner Vijay Waghmare on Tuesday announcing polls to 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar parishads on December 2. Two subsequent phases will cover 32 zilla parishads and 336 panchayat samitis and 29 municipal corporations, including BMC.The nagar parishads and panchayats in and around Mumbai that will go to polls in the first phase include Uran, Roha, Karjat, Alibag, Pen, Ambernath, Matheran, Dahanu, Palghar, and Chiplun.Terms of many civic bodies have expired for over 3 years but polls were delayed due to Covid and then court cases on OBC quota and number of wards. This will be the first major statewide election after the assembly polls last year. The model code of conduct is in force for the areas covered in the election; no policy decision involving these can be taken till results are announced. The announcement comes amid rising protests by the Opposition alleging that there were many irregularities in the July 1 voter list being used for the polls. The opposition demanded that the polls be postponed. “There will be no injustice towards any voter or political party. We have to finish the polls by Jan 31 in view of SC order,” said state election commissioner Waghmare. He said SEC had no role in adding and deleting names to the voter list since this was the task of ECI’s Chief Electoral Office. “We can only adopt the voter list existing on the cut-off date of July 1, which we have chosen,” he said.However, he said SEC had used software that identified duplicate names which had been marked with two stars on the voter lists in wards. VVPATS will not be used in any phase of the local body polls. Waghmare said a mobile app had been created for voters to search their name in the voter list. They could also find their names on http://mahasecvoterlist.in.
