The Nagpur Municipal Corporation elections descended into chaos as large-scale voter list discrepancies, polling centre changes and repeated EVM failures crippled the voting process across almost every prabhag of the city. Thousands of voters were pushed from booth to booth, exposing glaring administrative lapses that turned polling day into a test of patience rather than a democratic exercise.
From early morning, EVM machines stopped functioning at several centres, forcing voting to be suspended for 30 minutes to over an hour. Many booths remained deserted—not because voters were indifferent, but because faith in the system had visibly eroded.
The voter list chaos was so severe that even contesting candidates were affected. In Prabhag 25, MNS candidate Prakash Sonatakke found his own polling centre shifted to Prabhag 26, leaving him unable to cast his vote.
In East Wardhaman Nagar, around 100 voters from Jai Bhavani Complex and Ashapura Apartment were informed at the last moment that their votes had been shifted from Prabhag 23 to Prabhag 24. Families were split across centres, a situation confirmed by local resident Ashok Sawarkar.
The human cost of the confusion was evident in Prabhag 24, where Sheikh Sameer Sheikh and nearly 40 members of his family were sent back and forth between polling centres. “We have been roaming since morning just to vote,” Sheikh Sameer Sheikh said.
In East Nagpur’s Prabhag 4, Ghanashyam Dashrath Shahu went to three different schools in search of his name. When it was not found anywhere, he tore his voting slip in front of officials and returned home without voting.
The scenes across Nagpur reflected not voter apathy, but a deep collapse of trust in the electoral system.
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