The Pune Graduate Constituency Election 2026 and the Pune Teachers Constituency election will be held across Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur on Friday, 23 October, with the divisional administration preparing 1,051 polling centres and deploying around 6,900 personnel, including reserve staff.
Polling will take place from 8 am to 4 pm. The election administration has also arranged about 750 vehicles to transport ballot boxes from the five districts to the acceptance centre at Balewadi in Pune after voting ends. The vehicles will include state transport buses, jeeps and tempos, with police security planned during the movement of the ballot boxes.
The arrangements were announced by Pune Divisional Commissioner and Returning Officer Sheetal Teli-Ugle. She said the administration was working to ensure that polling was conducted smoothly, transparently and peacefully across the five-district constituency.
The graduate constituency has 741 polling centres and 388,019 registered voters. The teachers constituency has 310 polling centres and 62,000 voters. Together, the two constituencies have 450,019 eligible voters.
Kolhapur has the largest number of graduate voters, with 114,562 voters assigned to 212 polling centres. Pune has the highest number of teachers constituency voters, with 16,882 voters and 72 polling centres.
Pune district has 88,202 graduate voters across 160 centres and 16,882 teachers constituency voters across 72 centres. Solapur has 49,722 graduate voters across 117 centres and 15,303 teachers constituency voters across 76 centres. Satara has 47,463 graduate voters across 93 centres and 9,454 teachers constituency voters across 44 centres.
Sangli has 88,070 graduate voters across 159 centres and 8,062 teachers constituency voters across 48 centres. In Kolhapur, the graduate constituency has 114,562 voters across 212 centres, while the teachers constituency has 12,299 voters across 70 centres.
The administration has estimated a requirement of 2,158 ballot boxes, including reserve boxes, for the graduate constituency and 703 ballot boxes for the teachers constituency. Polling material will be distributed from designated centres in each district before being handed over to polling teams through tehsil and sub-divisional offices.
The distribution points include the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi in Pune, the government grain warehouse at Ramwadi in Solapur, the DMO warehouse in the MIDC area of Satara, Tarun Bharat Maidan in Sangli and the government grain warehouse at Raman Mala in Kolhapur.
Polling stations are being equipped with ramps, drinking water, electricity, furniture, separate toilets for women and men, shaded waiting areas, help desks, volunteers, queue-management arrangements, crèches and first-aid kits. These facilities are intended to reduce inconvenience for voters and support orderly movement at the centres.
Private establishments, companies, malls, shops and other workplaces have been instructed to provide eligible employees with four hours of paid leave to vote. Assistant Labour Commissioner S. T. Shirke said wages could not be deducted for the permitted period.
After polling, all ballot boxes will be brought under police escort to the Balewadi acceptance centre. Counting is scheduled for 27 October, and the complete election process is planned to conclude before 31 October. The returning officer has appealed to eligible graduate and teacher voters to vote at their assigned centres, record their preference order correctly and cast a valid ballot.
