Overview
- Polling opened for 29 municipal corporations including Mumbai’s BMC, with the SEC deploying over 28,000 police in the city and Pune detailing a large local force of officers, home guards and surveillance teams.
- In Mumbai’s Lalbaug, an EVM failed to start at 7:30 am and was replaced, with voting resuming at approximately 7:58 am after troubleshooting.
- Pune reported multiple issues: a Congress candidate alleged voting in Mangalwar Peth began only around 8:30 am due to a fault, St. Hilda’s in Guruwar Peth reported a stalled start, and NCP leader Ankush Kakade cited indicator and timing anomalies.
- Further glitches were reported in Nashik, Jalgaon, Solapur, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, where polling was paused, machines were replaced or rearranged, and queues formed until fixes were made.
- Voters in Pune’s Ward No. 9 said VVPAT units were not placed at booths, renewing verification concerns after the Election Commission previously rejected a court request to mandate VVPATs.