Cooperative institutions, including sugar cooperatives, spinning mills, and rural banks, play a critical role in the state’s economic and political landscape. The elections for these bodies are governed by the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Election Rules, 2014, with smaller societies holding local-level elections.

Although about 7,000 elections were already underway, the rest will now be postponed. Exemptions include cooperative housing societies with fewer than 250 members and institutions under specific court orders. The state government attributed the postponement to the need for substantial manpower for the assembly elections, marking this the second delay in co-operative elections.