The counting of votes for 27 Zilla Parishads, 309 Panchayat Samitis and 10 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, would now be held on February 17.
Maharashtra Election Commission on Thursday announced February 17 as the common date for counting of votes for the local bodies polls slightly tweaking its previous schedule.
The counting of votes for 27 Zilla Parishads, 309 Panchayat Samitis and 10 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, would now be held on February 17.
As per the previous arrangement, the counting of votes for the ZPs and Panchayat Samitis going to polls was to be held on February 7 and for municipalities on February 17.
The ZPs and Panchayat Samitis will elect their representatives as scheduled on February 7 and municipal bodies would exercise their franchise on February 16, the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Neela Satyanarayan told a press conference in Mumbai.
In the Maoist-infested Gadchiroli district, elections for ZP will be held in two phases on February 7 and February 12, she said.
The SEC's decision for single-day counting came in the wake of representations made by political parties bringing to its notice that the results of ZPs and Panchayat Samitis could influence voting for corporations.
Exit polls and opinion polls for Februaty 7, in case of voting for 27 Zilla Parishads and 309 Panchayat Samitis, have been banned, Satyanarayan said.
"Media can publish exit and opinion polls only after the voting is over on February 16," she added.
Informing about the preparation made by the poll regulator, Satyanarayan said the commission has made provision of 1.81 lakh electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the elections.
"The total EVMs include 1.30 lakh of the Election Commission of India, 24,000 of the Electronic Corporation of India ltd and 27,000 of the State Election Commission. The ECI machines will be used in all ZPs excluding Pune and Nagpur, while the state election commission's EVMs will be used for (polls to) Pune and Napgur ZPs. Machines from electronic corporation of India will be used in all the ten corporations," she informed.
Meanwhile, BJP and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have welcomed the SEC decision to set common date for counting.
Opposition leader in Maharashtra Legislative Council Vinod Tawde of BJP termed the decision as, "better late than never".
"If counting of votes for Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis would have been taken up on February 8, it would have had a direct bearing on the polling on February 16 for the ten Municipal Corporations," he told PTI.
The Election Commission should henceforth ensure that the counting of votes was done on the same day if such a scenario arose in the future, Tawde said.
Raj Thackeray-led MNS also welcomed the SEC decision.
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