Maharashtra to return to traditional indelible ink for zilla parishad, panchayat samiti polls: Election Commission

Mumbai: Amid the raging controversy over the use of marker pens to ink fingers during the polling in municipal corporations of Maharashtra as several instances of the ink getting wiped out surfaced, the State Election Commission has decided to revert to the traditional way of inking fingers during the February 2026 elections to zilla parishad and panchayat samitis. 

On Thursday, 29 municipal corporations including the financial capital of Mumbai went to polls.

On 5 February, 2026, 12 zilla parishads and 125 panchayat samities  in Maharashtra will go to polls. 

In the municipal corporations polls, indelible-ink marker pens procured from Kores India Ltd, has been providing indelible ink for the past several decades and is being used in Maharashtra since 2011. 

State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said that in view of the controversy, the SEC will not use marker pens for the forthcoming elections but revert to the traditional ink — produced by Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited, a company of the Karnataka government, which is  used in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. 

“The SEC has decided to conduct a probe, which will examine not only the ink’s quality but also the videos which were circulated throughout the day. The probe into videos is to ascertain whether the ink was applied on the finger while voting or in a mischievous way,” Waghmare said, noting that if it is found that people have tried to create a false narrative, appropriate action would be taken. 

However, when the reports poured in about the poor quality of ink, Waghmare had clarified that the ink that is applied through marker pens generally takes about 10 to 12 seconds to dry. “During this time, the voter is still inside the polling booth. Once it dries, it cannot be removed. This is the same ink used by the Election Commission of India,” he said.