Mumbai, Feb 5 (AHN) The campaign for the elections to the 12 Zilla Parishads and 125 Panchayat Samitis across the state ended on Thursday.

Voting will take place on Saturday from 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., and the counting of votes will be held on Monday, February 9.

With the campaign period over, political parties and candidates are now prohibited from publishing or broadcasting advertisements through print, electronic, or social media.

Elections are being held for 12 Zilla Parishads and 125 Panchayat Samitis in the following districts: Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, Dharashiv, and Latur.

Since Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections are held simultaneously, every voter is expected to cast two votes: one for the Zilla Parishad electoral division and one for the Panchayat Samiti electoral college.

A total of 25,482 polling stations have been set up.

To facilitate the process, 51,537 control units and 1,10,329 ballot units (EVMs) have been made available.

The State Election Commission (SEC) is using the Assembly constituency voter lists prepared by the Election Commission of India.

The lists existing as of July 1, 2025, are being used.

While the SEC cannot add or delete names, potential duplicate names have been marked with a double star (**).

The State Election Commission has launched the ‘Matadhikar’ mobile app, available on the Google Play Store, to help voters find their names, polling stations, and candidate information.

Voters can also search using their full name or EPIC (Voter ID) number on the website: https://mahasecvoterlist.in/

At the polling stations, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, women with infants, and pregnant women will be given priority.

Temporary ramps and wheelchairs will be provided where permanent ramps are unavailable.

Electricity, drinking water, shade, and toilets will be available at all centres.

Polling stations where the female voter population is high will be managed entirely by women officers and police personnel. These are designated as “Pink Polling Booths”.

Around 1.28 lakh election officials have been deployed, including 125 Returning Officers and 125 Assistant Returning Officers.

The BJP hopes to repeat its performance in the recently held elections to the nagar parishads, nagar panchayats, and municipal corporations, where it emerged at the top slot, while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is confident of increasing its presence in these elections.

On the other hand, the NCP expects to ride on the sympathy wave following the sudden and untimely death of former deputy chief minister and party president late Ajit Pawar.

Incidentally, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP is contesting these polls in an alliance with the NCP.

The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) are contesting independently, as the opposition has not been able to work out a united front against the BJP-led Mahayuti.