Maharashtra Schedules Rural Polls for Feb 5 in 12 Districts

Maharashtra's State Election Commission announced on Tuesday that elections for 12 Zilla Parishads and 125 Panchayat Samitis across the state will take place on February 5, with vote counting scheduled for February 7. The polls, covering 12 districts including Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Parbhani, Dharashiv, and Latur, mark a key step in restoring elected local governance in rural areas long administered by officials.

The announcement came during a press conference led by State Election Commission Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, just one day after the Supreme Court granted a two-week extension beyond the original January 31 deadline for completing these local body elections. The court allowed polls to proceed until February 15 in cases where the 50 percent reservation limit for certain categories has not been exceeded, prompting the commission to prioritize these 12 Zilla Parishads and their corresponding Panchayat Samitis. Of the 34 Zilla Parishads in Maharashtra, 32 have been under administrative control since their terms expired, except for Bhandara and Gondia, whose terms run until May 2027. Similarly,...