By Tasneem Bandukwala
Despite a nine-year gap, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) did not record an increase in voter turnout from elections held in 2017. The polling percentage on Thursday was 54.50 per cent as compared to 55.56 per cent in 2017.
There were a total of 165 cooperators from 41 wards. Due to the growth the city has seen since the last election, with an increase in population and urbanisation, the voter turnout was expected to rise as well. The total number of voters who appeared on Thursday was 35,52,637.
Voting started slowly, from 7:30 am to 9:30 am, voter turnout was only 5.5per cent. It picked up by afternoon, and voting ended at 5:30 pm.
Polling booths and voters faced many complications throughout the day, such as Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) not working, bogus voting, missing names from the electoral roll, and last-minute shifting of voters to different electoral wards.
Many voters turned up in the morning to vote before leaving for work. Union minister Murlidhar Mohol and state minister Chandrakant Patil also voted in the early hours and encouraged citizens to show up and vote.
Several voters faced confusion while voting. People complained of not being able to locate their polling booths or having to travel large distances to vote. Voters also said that they were initially told that there would be four separate EVMs for four categories; however, in some locations, there were only three EVMs, with one of the EVMs having two categories.
On Sinhagad Road, NCP leader and State Women’s Commission chief Roopali Chakankar said she noticed unfamiliar voters from outside the Dhayari area casting ballots in the PMC elections. She also claimed that someone was seen quickly wiping off the ink marks from voters’ fingers. “I have reached out to the state election commission on the ink mark easily being removed, leading to fear of repeated voting from the citizens,” she said.
26 control units and 76 ballots had to be replaced due to technical issues, according to PMC.
The counting of votes will begin on Friday, January 16, 2026, at 10 am, and results will be announced on the same day.