We shouldn’t do dialoguebaazi, says Akshay Kumar as he casts vote early in BMC elections 2026

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Polling for India's richest municipal corporation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), began early on Thursday morning, with hundreds of voters queuing up to exercise their franchise and elect 277 new ward members, after a gap of nearly eight years.

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar was among the first celebrities to reach a polling booth on Thursday morning to cast his vote.

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The actor arrived early at the Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan polling station in Mumbai to complete the voting process.

After casting his vote, Akshay spoke to reporters outside the polling station. While speaking to reporters, the actor emphasised the importance of voting and encouraged people to take part in the election process. Urging citizens to come out and vote, the actor said, "Today is the BMC election... I would urge everyone to definitely vote so that we can choose the right person through voting."

Polling is being held on Thursday across 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. The elections are taking place after an intense campaign and are seen as crucial for major cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena are contesting the civic elections as allies under the Mahayuti banner, except in Pune, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has chosen to fight independently in most corporations.

According to the State Election Commission, a total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots to decide the fate of 15,908 candidates contesting 2,869 seats across 893 wards in 29 municipal corporations. A total of 39,092 polling centres have been set up across the state.

The Thackeray family, including former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya Thackeray, also visited polling booth 44 at Kala Nagar, Sahvas Society, in Bandra East to cast their votes.

To ensure maximum voter participation, the Maharashtra government has declared January 15 a public holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act. The holiday applies to all government and semi-government offices, corporations, and banks within the jurisdiction of the 29 corporations going to the polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting the BMC elections in alliance with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Meanwhile, the National Congress Party, which is part of Mahayuti in the state and the NDA in the Centre, has joined hands with the NCP (SP) in key municipal corporations, including Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune.

The prominent civic bodies going to polls include Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar, Panvel, Nashik, Malegaon, Ahilyanagar, Jalgaon, Dhule, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ichalkaranji, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nanded-Waghala, Parbhani, Jalna, Latur, Amravati, Akola, Nagpur and Chandrapur. (ANI)