City voters to have maiden experience of casting four votes in each prabhag

Lokmat News Network

Rafique Aziz

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The bugle of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation’s (CSMC) general election has been sounded. Above all, the civic elections will be held for the first time on a prabhag system, rather than the decades-old traditional ward system. For smooth conduct of the general elections, the civic authorities are running from pillar to post. On other hand, the elections are also a talk of the town and the political circles as for the first time a voter will have to cast a vote in favour of 4/3 candidates of his/her respective prabhag.

The Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (Ammendment) Bill 2024 passed on March 2, 2024 stated that 28 municipal corporations across the state will be conducting civic elections on the prabhag system.

Considering the population of Census 2011 (around 12 lakh), the CSMC delimited 115 wards and formed 29 prabhags - 28 comprising four wards and one comprising three wards. Later, the CSMC submitted a draft prabhag plan to the State Election Commission (SEC) through the Urban Development Department (UDD), for approval, on August 6, 2025.

Voting for candidates of four wards

The deputy commissioner (election branch) Vikas Navale said, “ The municipal corporation will be holding the general elections in 29 prabhags for the first time in the city. We have divided 115 wards. We are on heels for smooth conduct of the elections. Notably, the voter will have to cast four votes in his prabhag. To be precise, he will have to vote for his choice candidate from his respective ward and then vote for candidates of other three wards in the respective prabhag. Hence the voter will have to cast his vote judiciously and carefully.”

Vote responsibly

According to election branch sources, “ If the voter votes for his ward candidate and skips voting for other three wards then the voting process will not be completed. The EVM will not transmit a beep sound and his/her vote would be declared as invalid.”

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The State Election Commission (SEC) had also approved the draft prabhag plan submitted by the CSMC on August 22 (Friday) and then the civic administration released the draft on August 23. The draft attracted 552 objections and suggestions which were heard before a SEC-appointed bureaucrat on September 10. The draft with corrections will now be submitted by CSMC to the SEC on September 15 (Monday).

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The prabhag with four wards will be labelled as 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. Of all 29 prabhags, number 22 is the largest in size with a population of 46,673 voters and number 29 is the smallest in size with a population of 29,149 voters. Meanwhile, number 24 has the largest population of Scheduled Caste voters (19,383), while number 1 is largest in population of Scheduled Tribe voters (1295).