Pune (Maharashtra): Local body elections across several municipal councils in Pune district, including Baramati, have been postponed after key court orders were delivered beyond the Maharashtra State Election Commission’s (SEC) mandated deadline. Officials confirmed that polling for all affected councils and wards will now be held on December 20, 2025.

The postponement comes even as the election campaign had entered its final phase. While voting for most municipal bodies across the state will take place as scheduled on December 2, with results on December 3, several towns and wards now face a revised schedule stretching through December.

Why the SEC postponed the elections

According to a press note issued by the Pune District Administration, the SEC had instructed that elections must not proceed in any municipal council or nagar panchayat where appeals related to membership disqualification or reservation disputes were still pending before district courts.

To prevent last-minute legal complications, the SEC had set November 22, 2025, as the cutoff date for courts to issue rulings.

However, appeals concerning the President’s post in the Baramati Municipal Council and the Fursungi–Uruli Devachi Municipal Council were resolved only on November 26, 2025, four days after the deadline. Orders related to member seats in both councils were also issued after November 22.

As these decisions came too late to conduct elections smoothly, the SEC ordered that the entire general elections for both councils, covering the President’s post and all member seats, be postponed to December 20.

Similar delays occurred in appeals involving member seats in Talegaon Dabhade, Lonavala, Daund, and Saswad municipal councils. Since rulings were issued after the cutoff date, the SEC rescheduled polling in the affected wards in these towns as well.

Authorities added that no fresh nominations will be accepted for the postponed elections. Only withdrawals will be permitted until December 10, 2025 (3:00 PM).

The revised election programme will be published by the SEC in newspapers and circulated widely to inform voters and candidates.

District Collector Jitendra Dudi urged citizens to pay attention to the changes, stating that the postponements were mandated under SEC guidelines after judicial orders crossed the official cutoff dates.

The larger electoral context

The ongoing local body polls are set to test political momentum on the ground, political observers said. The campaign period was extended until 10 pm on December 1, with counting scheduled for December 3. The Model Code of Conduct has been in effect since State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare announced the poll schedule on November 4.

This election cycle will decide the fate of 6,859 members and 288 presidents across municipal councils and nagar panchayats. More than 1.07 crore voters will cast their ballots at 13,355 polling stations, with Electronic Voting Machines deployed and over 66,000 staff members assigned to manage polling.

An official said, "Of the total seats, 3,492 are reserved for women, 895 for Scheduled Castes, 338 for Scheduled Tribes, and 1,821 for Other Backward Classes. The expenditure limit for candidates has been set at Rs 15 lakh for the post of president and Rs 12 lakh for post of member."

Nomination filing began on November 10, closed on November 17, scrutiny took place on November 18, and withdrawals were allowed until November 21. The SEC received more than 51,000 nominations, the official added.

Of the 246 municipal councils, 10 are newly formed. Of the 42 nagar panchayats going to the polls, 15 are newly constituted, and 27 have completed their terms.

“Region-wise, the elections will cover 27 councils in Konkan, 59 in Nashik division, 60 in Pune division, and 55 in Nagpur division, making this a geographically diverse electoral exercise spanning urban and semi-urban Maharashtra,” the official said.

Political undercurrents

The contest pits the ruling Mahayuti alliance, BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, against the Maha Vikas Aghadi of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP), and Congress.

The BJP has already secured 100 councillor seats and three municipal president posts unopposed, with state unit chief Ravindra Chavan claiming this reflects public trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He said development-oriented policies deterred opposition candidates from contesting in several constituencies.

However, the BJP faced criticism in Nanded’s Loha Nagar Parishad, where local NCP MLA Pratap Patil Chikhalikar objected to the party fielding six candidates from the Suryavanshi family, including the chairman nominee Gajanand Suryavanshi, his wife, brother, and sister-in-law — sparking debate over dynastic politics.

Voter roll concerns and SC mandate

Opposition parties demanded postponement of polls over alleged discrepancies in voter lists, claiming the July 1 revision contained duplicate entries. In response, the Election Commission introduced a verification system, marking suspected duplicate voters with double stars and requiring strict identity checks at polling stations.

To improve transparency, the EC launched a mobile application featuring candidate details and affidavits and published booth-wise voter lists on November 7.

These polls are being conducted under the Supreme Court directive requiring all pending local body elections in Maharashtra to be completed by January 31, 2026. Poll schedules for 29 municipal corporations, 32 Zilla Parishads, and 336 Panchayat Samitis are yet to be announced. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, last held in 2017, is expected around mid-January.