Municipal polling mostly peaceful; minor incidents reported

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Voting in prabhags 21, 22, and 27 of zone 7 was largely peaceful on Thursday, except for minor incidents. In prabhag 21, tension arose briefly around 2 pm outside Jai Ambika Vidya Mandir, Renukanagar, when party workers broke the glass of a jeep carrying voters, alleging bogus entries. Shinde Sena candidate Rajendra Janjal arrived, and police maintained security; no formal complaint was registered.

The city held its first municipal election in 10 years. Prabhag 21 had 39 booths, prabhag 22 had 46, and prabhag 27 had 43, serving a total of 1,14,755 voters. Candidates included 23 in prabhag 21, 29 in prabhag 22, and 33 in prabhag 27. Voting began at 7.30 am, with only 6% turnout by 9.30 am. By 1.30 pm, 29,564 voters (25.75%) had voted, rising to 38.34% by 3.30 pm. Polling closed at 5.30 pm, with all waiting voters allowed to cast their votes.

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Long queues at 5.30 pm

Long queues were reported at Sudhakar Naik School (Prabhag 22), where police closed the main gate at 5.30 pm but ensured all voters in line could vote.

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Minister Atul Save visits multiple polling centers

OBC Welfare Minister Atul Save visited multiple polling centres in the zone, interacting with party workers and candidates.

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Voting was done by someone else in the name of the engineer

Aniket Dattatray Shinde, an engineer, found someone had voted in his name at Sudhakarrao Naik School; after raising an objection, he was allowed to vote using a ballot paper.

Photo caption: Minister Atul Save at a polling centre in zone 7.