Mumbai, Dec 1 With campaigning for the elections to the nagar parishads and nagar panchayats ending at 10:00 PM tonight, and voting scheduled for December 2, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appealed to the State Election Commission to reconsider the revised election schedule issued on November 29.
The revised schedule calls for a re-election for approximately 24 posts of Nagar Parishad chiefs and 204 posts of members across various Nagar Parishads and Nagar Panchayats in the state.
The State BJP chief, Ravindra Chavan, in his letter to the SEC, has objected to the blanket implementation of this order, arguing that the decision to postpone the elections at the final stage of campaigning and one day before polling is inappropriate.
Chavan highlighted several issues with the SEC’s November 29 order.
“In places like Wardha District, the party asserts that all appeal decisions were finalised before the allotment of election symbols and the publication of Form-7. The BJP believes the November 29 order should not apply in such cases,” said Chavan.
Chavan observed that the party contends that if a court decision on an appeal does not change the number of candidates, their symbols, or names, or if the candidate whose nomination was validated by the court submits an affidavit to withdraw their nomination, the Election Returning Officer should be allowed to conduct the election process as per the previously declared schedule.
Chavan, in his letter, has cited Rule 17 (1) of the Maharashtra Municipalities Election Rules, 1966, which states that the list of contesting candidates is amended based on the decision of an appeal filed with the District Court against the scrutiny decision, and the election process is completed as per the rules.
“BJP demands that elections where the process was completed following an appeal decision—in line with Annexure-1, point 6(b) of the State Election Commission’s November 4, 2025, order—should be deemed valid. This includes cases where the appeal decision was made up to November 25, 2025, and Form-7 and symbol allotment were completed on November 26, 2025,” he said.
He further added that there is a lack of coordination between the State Election Commission's November 4, 2025, and November 29, 2025, directives.
“The SEC should urgently issue revised directives based on cases where the appeal decision was made after November 26, 2025 and Cases where a candidate provides a personal affidavit to withdraw. The SEC needs to consider these factors and not postpone the elections to ensure that all voters in the state can exercise their right to vote,” said Chavan.
--IANS
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