Pune: Elections to 12 Zilla Parishads (ZPs) across as many districts and 125 panchayat samitis in the state are likely to be announced early next week, with the State Election Commission (SEC) racing against time to meet the Supreme Court’s Jan 31 deadline for completing all pending local body polls. Sources in the SEC on Wednesday said that the election schedule will have to be announced next week to adhere to the mandatory 21-day election process prescribed for ZP and panchayat samiti polls. However, even if the process is initiated immediately, polling is expected to spill into the first week of Feb, raising concerns over manpower availability and election logistics. “Even with an early announcement, the 21-day window will extend into Feb. This will put pressure on manpower deployment and logistical planning,” a senior SEC official said. For the 12 districts, the elections will involve setting up around 26,000 polling stations and deploying nearly 75,000 personnel, most of them drawn from the teaching cadre. Officials said manpower planning is already under strain due to overlapping administrative commitments across departments, especially with multiple elections being conducted in quick succession. The pressure is compounded by the ongoing cycle of urban local body elections. Polls are already completed for 263 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats, following which elections for 29 municipal corporations were announced on Dec 15 with elections on Jan 15 and counting the following day. Officials said the same EVMs will be used for the rural local body polls immediately after the municipal corporation elections. This leaves a very narrow turnaround time for election staff to retrieve memory cards, reconfigure machines, and redeploy them. “There is virtually no breathing space between the two exercises. Machines will have to be readied almost immediately after corporation polls,” an election official said, pointing to the operational strain involved. Working teachers, who are among the main election staff, said the possible spillover of polling into early Feb would place them under severe pressure. “We cannot refuse election duty, but it will definitely be immensely stressful if both duties are assigned to us,” a senior teacher told TOI. The teachers would have to dedicate for four days to the activity, which will include training, polling and counting. Sources said the SEC is preparing to announce elections only for those ZPs where reservations do not exceed the 50% ceiling, in line with Supreme Court directions. Elections to the remaining ZPs and panchayat samitis continue to remain on hold pending further orders, with the apex court scheduled to hear the matter on Jan 21. Across the state, elections are pending for 32 ZPs and 336 panchayat samitis. However, polls in 20 ZPs and 211 panchayat samitis cannot be conducted until the reservation issue is resolved by the court. The 12 ZPs for which elections are likely to be announced soon include Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur (Pune division); Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg (Konkan division); and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, Dharashiv and Latur (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division). Crack down on staff skipping poll training: SEC State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare on Wednesday directed officials to take strict action against officers and staff absent from mandatory election training, stressing that trained manpower is critical for smooth polling and counting in the upcoming municipal corporation elections. Waghmare issued the instructions during video conference meetings held on Jan 6-7 with all 29 municipal commissioners, police commissioners, district superintendents of police and election officers to review poll preparedness and law-and-order arrangements. He said timely completion of training was non-negotiable and emphasised the need to sensitise polling staff on voter-facilitation measures. Polling stations must have electricity, drinking water, shade and functional toilets, while model polling booths should be set up wherever feasible. Priority facilities must be provided to senior citizens, persons with disabilities, pregnant women and women with infants, including ramps and wheelchairs. Meanwhile, SEC secretary Suresh Kakani said election campaigning will end at 5.30pm on Jan 13, 2026, after which no poll-related ads can be published or broadcast in any media.
