India, June 11 -- The state government has initiated the process for holding elections to municipal corporations, municipal councils, and zilla parishads across Maharashtra with the Urban Development Department on Tuesday directed all municipal corporations to begin the ward delimitation exercise, a crucial step ahead of the polls.

Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations are expected to continue with the four-member ward system, though ward boundaries are likely to change due to the merger of 34 villages into the Pune civic limits over the past six years.

In the 2017 civic polls, both cities followed the four-member ward format. In 2021, however, the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government attempted to introduce a three-member syst...