Overview
- The State Election Commission said candidates may visit voters’ homes after the campaign cutoff if groups do not exceed five people and no microphones are used.
- The poll body cited a February 14, 2012 order to assert that such personal contact does not constitute public canvassing.
- MNS chief Raj Thackeray alleged the late-stage allowance was designed to benefit the ruling Mahayuti in the BMC and 28 other municipal corporation elections and questioned why it was not applied in recent national and state polls.
- Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed the move effectively lets ruling-party candidates distribute money door to door, and Thackeray urged opposition workers to keep watch.
- Thackeray also criticized the unpublicized use of the Printing Auxiliary Display Unit, while BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani said PADU would serve only as an emergency backup for counting in case of EVM glitches.