Overview
- Polling began at 7:30 am across 29 municipal corporations with 3.48 crore eligible voters and vote counting scheduled for January 16.
- Malfunctioning EVMs delayed or halted voting at multiple booths in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Jalgaon, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur and Navi Mumbai, prompting on-site machine swaps.
- BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani acknowledged poor-quality marking ink that could be erased, while voters in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad reported marker use that faded quickly.
- Complaints included missing or misplaced VVPATs in parts of Pune, misordered machine sequences in Pune and Jalgaon, and a Navi Mumbai allegation that NOTA presses lit the BJP symbol, with calls for immediate replacement.
- Access problems persisted with missing names, absent booth numbers and long verification queues; one FIR process began in Pimpri-Chinchwad over an in-booth video, and early turnout remained modest in some cities, including Pune at 6% in the first two hours and Nashik at 6.51% by 9 am.