PUNE: Just five candidates have filed their nominations for next month’s municipal elections in the four days since the window opened. Of the five, none are from leading political parties. Not a single nomination was filed on the opening day, January 27, so the civic administration had decided to accept nominations on Sunday too, but to no avail. With February 5 being the last day, the load on election machinery is expected to increase. “All major parties have not released their list of candidates, and aspirants are of two minds — if they file their nominations and fail to get a party ticket, they will have a tough contest on their hands. So they are holding back, ” said one such hopeful who is also biding his time. Unlike previous elections, the process to file nominations is completely online now, and the decentralized system only makes it easier for candidates. “We have around 14 ward offices. The candidates can submit nominations there, ” said Satish Kulkarni, election officer for the Pune Municipal Corporation. Observers attribute the lukewarm response to several factors, like a delay in completing document-related formalities, or even waiting for an auspicious time. Of the nearly 2, 200 applications for no-objection certificates, only 220 were processed successfully. Each candidate has to collect 22 NOCs to be able to file his or her nomination. “Discussions on the seat-sharing formula are still on. We will soon publish the list. After that our official candidates will start filing nominations, ” said Vandana Chavan, city unit chief of NCP.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com