Voters Turn Up In Large Numbers, EVM Complaints Surface

After a gap of nearly nine years, voting for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections is underway today, with voters turning out in large numbers since early morning. Despite the cold weather, citizens queued up at polling booths, which reflects strong public enthusiasm for the civic polls.

However, the voting process witnessed disruptions at several locations due to Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctions, leading to confusion and objections from voters and political representatives.

The PMC elections are being held across 41 wards, from which 165 corporators will be elected.

Pune is witnessing a mixed contest. Parties within the Mahayuti alliance are contesting separately, while both factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are fighting the elections together. On the other hand, the Congress and Shiv Sena have formed an alliance for these polls.

Pune has a total electorate of 3,552,637 voters, including 1,832,789 male voters and 1,713,360 female voters. A total of 1,153 candidates are in the fray, and voting is being conducted at 4,011 polling stations across the city. Since morning, a steady flow of voters, especially senior citizens and first-time voters, has been observed. Arrangements such as drinking water facilities and queue management have been made outside polling stations for voter convenience.

The PMC election is being closely watched, particularly due to the intense contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party. During the campaign, NCP president Ajit Pawar had strongly criticised the BJP. His party’s manifesto announcement promising free Metro and PMPML bus services had also sparked widespread debate and criticism.

Meanwhile, complaints regarding EVM irregularities surfaced from multiple polling booths. NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar faction) leader Ankush Kakade formally raised objections, alleging technical issues with the machines. He claimed that after three votes were cast, the indicator light failed to turn on during the fourth vote. He also alleged that the EVM displayed an incorrect time, showing 7:44 am, which was reportedly 14 minutes ahead of the actual time.

Despite these issues, polling is continuing across the city, and authorities are working to address technical problems to ensure a smooth and fair voting process.