4 minutes of readingPuneJanuary 16, 2026 12:42 am IST
Held after a gap of nine years following a high-octane election campaign by political parties, Thursday’s Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections did not register any increase in voter turnout compared to the 2017 elections. Thursday’s poll percentage was 54.50 per cent, up from 55.56 per cent in 2017.
With the increase in the city’s population, rapid urbanization and expansion of civic area, it was expected that the polls for the election of 165 corporations from 41 wards would see an increase in voting percentage. A total of 35,52,637 voters participated in Thursday’s elections.
Lack of names in the electoral rolls, movement of voters to other constituencies, false voting and technical problems in electronic voting machines (EVMs) had an impact on the polls.
The polls got off to a slow start, with only 5.5 percent of voters in the first two hours, between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. However, it later recovered until voting ended at 5:30 p.m.
The polls began on a good note, as many voters came to cast their votes before leaving for their workplaces. Many voters who were taking their daily morning walk appeared at their respective polling stations to cast their vote.
Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol and State Minister Chandrakant Patil were among those who voted in the morning and asked voters to turn out in large numbers.
Many voters had difficulty locating their polling stations, while some complained that their names had been removed from electoral rolls. Atharva Banatwala (23) said he had voted in the Lok Sabha elections and the 2024 state assembly elections, but his name was missing for the PMC elections.
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Activist Vivek Velankar was furious that his son and daughter-in-law, who resided together in Sadashiv Peth, were forced to vote separately at a distance of 5 kilometers and in different wards. “This is magic on the part of the PMC administration as they do not seem to accept the fact that my son and daughter-in-law remain in the same house in Sadashiv Peth. My son’s name appeared in the electoral roll of Sadashiv Peth, while my daughter-in-law had to travel five kilometers to a different ward on Sinhagad Road to cast her vote,” he said.
Ramling Bawkar (75) of Sinhagad Road complained that his name was earlier appearing in the electoral roll with his family in a booth near the residence, but this time the names of other voters in the family were near their residence but not his. “My name is included in the electoral roll of another district which is two kilometers from my residence. How can this happen?” he said.
Some voters complained of confusion due to the panel vote in which four buttons, one for each EVM, had to be pressed for it to be valid. “We were told that there would be four different EVMs and you have to press one button of each EVM, but there were only three EVMs as two sub-categories in EVM, one below the other, and there were two separate EVMs for two sub-categories,” Dinesh Pawar said.
Later in the day, city Shiv Sena chief Pramod Bhangire, contesting from Kondhwa area, alleged that the NCP candidates had got 2,500 foreign nationals. Pune district for false voting. “We have informed the police about it,” he said.
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On Sinhagad Road, NCP leader and state women commission chief Roopali Chakankar said she found unknown citizens outside the Dhayari area voting in the PMC elections and one person was immediately removing the ink mark on their fingers. “I contacted the state election commission because the ink mark is easily removed, raising fears that citizens will vote repeatedly,” he said.
In Kasba Peth area, party workers barged into a polling booth after there was some technical problem in EVM in the middle of voting and the BJP was allegedly behind it.
According to PMC, due to technical problems during voting, a total of 26 control units and 76 voting units had to be replaced.
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