Growing urbanisation has increased the number of registered co-operative housing societies in Maharashtra to a lakh or so. A housing society is formed when a developer hands over all his real estate stock to buyers to use it as a residential or commercial place. The hand over means the flat owners are henceforth supposed to maintain the building in a cooperative set up prescribed under the state law, that particularly deals with the housing sector.

Of late, the very law had created problems for the people who work in an honorary capacity in housing societies, because it was mandated in 2013 that elections for cooperatives, including housing in the state, must be held under the control of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Election Authority. Those who were forced to take the new route found it tedious and expensive. At times, they were misled by the election officials when it came to charging the fee to conduct elections. Rules were flouted and members pressured into shelling out more money.