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Mumbai, Dec 13 (PTI) Candidates in the upcoming municipal corporation, zilla parishad and panchayat samiti polls in Maharashtra will be permitted to file their nomination papers offline, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Dinesh Waghmare has said.
He pointed out that offline filing of nominations had earlier been allowed for municipal council and nagar panchayat polls, held on December 2, following requests from candidates and political parties.
Waghmare was speaking at a meeting of representatives of recognised political parties organised at the State Election Commission (SEC) office on Friday.
SEC Secretary Suresh Kakani, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Additional Commissioner Ashwini Joshi, and officials from several civic bodies attended the meeting, according to an official release.
"This option (offline nomination filing) will now be available for municipal corporations, zilla parishads and panchayat samitis as well," Waghmare said.
Elections to 336 panchayat samitis, 29 municipal corporations, including the Mumbai civic body, and 32 zilla parishads are expected to be held before January 31. The schedule has not been announced yet.
On the issue of suspected duplicate voters, Waghmare said municipal commissioners and district collectors have been instructed to conduct verification.
The BMC has developed a dedicated software tool to identify possible duplicate entries, supplemented by door-to-door checks by field staff, noted the IAS officer.
He said voters can search their names in rolls through the SEC's designated website, and the 'Matadhikar' mobile app launched by the commission.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
