The announcement is expected to disappoint the Opposition Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties that have already raised the issue of major discrepancies in voters’ list and taken a stand that local civic body elections must not be held until the voters’ list is cleaned up and fake voters are weeded out from the voters’ list.
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The Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) announced here on Thursday that there is no provision for the use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines in the rules governing local civic body elections.
The announcement is expected to disappoint the Opposition Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties that have already raised the issue of major discrepancies in voters’ list and taken a stand that local civic body elections must not be held until the voters’ list is cleaned up and fake voters are weeded out from the voters’ list.
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On August 6, 2025, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Vijay Wadettiwar demanded that local civic elections in the state must be conducted using VVPAT machines to ensure transparency in the voting process. He also demanded that if the deployment of VVPAT machines is not feasible, elections to rural and urban civic bodies should be held using ballot papers, after then SEC Dinesh Waghmare stated on August 5, 2025 that VVPATs would not be used in the local civic body polls due to logistical challenges, including a large number of candidates in each ward and requirement for voters to cast four votes at the same time.
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On Saturday, the SEC stated that the local civic body polls in the state are conducted under the provisions of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965, the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, and the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1958.
The SEC further said that the provision to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in local civic body elections was incorporated to the respective acts and rules in 2005, but there is no legal provision regarding the use of VVPATs.
Amending the Acts or rules mentioned above does not fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC and it stated that except for a few exceptions, almost all local body civic body elections in Maharashtra are conducted under a multi-member ward system.
The Commission stated that its Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC), comprising all State Election Commissions across the country, is studying compatibility of voting machines with VVPAT attachments for such multi-member systems.
Since the TEC’s final report is yet to be submitted, the use of VVPATs in local civic body elections is presently not feasible, the Commission stated, adding only after receiving the TEC’s final report on technical specifications of VVPAT, an appropriate decision will be taken in future.
VVPAT machines have not been used so far in the elections to local bodies so far. Section ’61A’ was included in the ‘Representation of the People Act, 1951′ in the year 1989 regarding the use of electronic voting machines in Lok Sabha and state assembly elections. In 2013, rule numbers ’49A’ to ’49X’ and other rules were made under the ‘Conduct of Election Rules, 1961’ regarding the use of VVPAT.
Accordingly, the Election Commission of India (ECI) deploys electronic voting machines and VVPAT only in the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, the Commission stated.
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