HC clarifies: Counting of votes for local body elections will take place on December 21, not December 3

by Webdesk
03 Dec 2025

NAGPUR: The counting of votes for the elections to 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, which went to polls on Tuesday, will now take place on December 21 instead of December 3, following instructions issued by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. In an interim decision delivered on Tuesday, the court also placed a ban on exit polls until half an hour after polling concludes for the remaining 24 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, where the voting has been rescheduled for December 20. These bodies were supposed to vote on Tuesday itself, but the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) postponed the polling on Saturday after identifying irregularities in the election procedure. Due to the postponement, the court added that the Model Code of Conduct will remain applicable until December 20.

The bench was hearing multiple petitions that opposed the SEC’s updated polling timetable. The petitioners argued that if vote counting was conducted on December 3—as per the original schedule—it could impact voter behaviour in the December 20 polls in the constituencies where voting was rescheduled. They therefore demanded that the counting date be modified to coincide with the revised polling schedule.

One of the petitions came from Chandrapur district. The SEC had halted elections in Ward 7 of the Warora Municipal Council but had planned to announce results for the remaining 13 wards on December 3. BJP candidate Sachin Chute stated in his petition that he was notified about the revised election timetable only on November 30. He requested the High Court to ensure that the counting for Warora also took place on December 21, along with the statewide tallying.

Senior advocate Firdos Mirza, representing one of the petitioners, noted that the bench has specified clearly that exit polls are not permitted until December 20. The High Court will continue hearing objections to the SEC’s revised election schedule on December 10.

The court’s directive has arrived at a time when tensions are already high regarding the repeatedly delayed local body elections in Maharashtra, which have remained pending for over three years. While 264 civic bodies successfully cast their votes on Tuesday, the postponement of polling in 24 other bodies due to alleged operational discrepancies—related to deadlines for withdrawal of nominations and allotment of election symbols—ignited widespread political criticism. The postponement of polling and subsequent delay of vote counting intensified dissatisfaction across the state.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while speaking to the media, stated that he had never before witnessed an election being postponed just one day before polling. Calling the development a “systemic failure”, he urged authorities to take corrective measures to avoid similar lapses in the future. According to him, although the ruling of the High Court is binding on everyone, the chaos created by the Election Commission is unprecedented. He remarked that in his over 30 years of political career, he had not seen such mismanagement. He stated that although the bench and the SEC function independently, the entire situation reflects badly on the system, with elections and results both being deferred, causing confusion for candidates and voters alike. He appealed to the SEC to improve its functioning as it must conduct several upcoming elections in the state.

Fadnavis further expressed that he believes the postponement stemmed from a misreading of election laws. He claimed that multiple legal experts had agreed that delaying the elections was unnecessary. While he stated that he held no personal resentment toward the SEC, he expressed disappointment that legal procedures were not correctly followed.

BJP minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule echoed similar concerns, asserting that the postponement was a result of an incorrect interpretation of the law. He pointed out that 99% of district-level rulings had been delivered before the November 25 deadline, yet the SEC abruptly delayed polling just a day before voting. While he acknowledged that the High Court’s order must be respected, he reiterated that the SEC’s administrative mistakes created the crisis. According to him, political leaders from all parties wanted immediate declaration of the results on Wednesday, and the delay has drawn frustration across the board.

Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar also denounced the decision, alleging that the SEC was influenced by the government and that it misinterpreted a Supreme Court directive related to OBC reservations. He stated that the entire electoral mechanism had been thrown off balance by the court’s order, calling the situation a mockery of the democratic process. He insisted that both the state government and the Election Commission must be held responsible and that reforms are urgently required to protect the integrity of future elections.

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02 Jan 2026

BMC Elections

HC clarifies: Counting of votes for local body elections will take place on December 21, not December 3

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