Voting for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections began on January 15 from 7.30 am and is scheduled till 5.30 pm, with counting scheduled for Friday.
Mumbai (Maharashtra): Polling has begun on Thursday morning in 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, since the last Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections in 2017.
Voting began on January 15 from 7.30 am and is scheduled till 5.30 pm, with counting scheduled for Friday, January 16. The election program for the 29 corporations was announced on December 15, 2025.
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Except for Brihanmumbai, elections in the remaining 28 corporations are being conducted under a multi-member ward system. While Mumbai voters will cast a single vote per ward, voters elsewhere will generally cast four votes, though some wards have three or five seats.
The polls bring to a close a high-voltage campaign which set the stage for a decisive political contest in major urban centres, including Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena are contesting the civic elections together under the Mahayuti banner in most cities, with the notable exception of Pune. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), meanwhile, is fighting independently in the majority of corporations, though an exception has been made in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, where both NCP factions have come together on a joint manifesto.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, former Uttar Pradesh Governor and BJP leader Ram Naik, Minister of Cultural Affairs Ashish Shelar, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol, and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar were among those who cast their vote soon after polling commenced.
Over 3.48 crore voters to decide fate of 15,908 candidates
According to the State Election Commission, 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 the 29 municipal corporations. A total of 39,092 polling centres have been set up across the state.
The Election Commission said adequate electronic voting machines had been arranged, including 43,958 control units and 87,916 ballot units. For the BMC alone, 11,349 control units and 22,698 ballot units have been deployed.
Polling is underway in the municipal corporations of Brihanmumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kolhapur, Kalyan-Dombivli, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Latur, Parbhani, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Malegaon, Panvel, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Dhule, Ahilyanagar, Ichalkaranji and Jalna.
High-voltage contest expected in Mumbai and Pune
The fiercest contests are expected in Mumbai and Pune. In Mumbai, the BJP-led Mahayuti faces the united Thackeray camp in a high-stakes battle for control of the BMC, the country’s richest civic body. In a significant development ahead of polling, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray joined hands on the issue of Marathi identity, marking a reunion after nearly two decades.
Pune has witnessed its own dramatic realignment. Following a split in 2023, both factions of the NCP reunited just ahead of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections. Ajit Pawar aligned once again with Sharad Pawar and is contesting against the BJP, an NDA partner in the state. The Shiv Sena, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has opted to contest the PMC polls independently after failing to reach a seat-sharing agreement with the BJP.
Security arrangements in place
State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said extensive security arrangements had been put in place. The deployment includes senior police officers, nearly 12,000 police personnel, over 42,000 Home Guards and 57 companies of the State Reserve Police Force for counting and law-and-order duties.
Appealing to voters, Mr Waghmare urged citizens to participate in large numbers, saying their vote would shape the future of their cities.
Public holiday declared, schools closed
The Maharashtra government has declared January 15 a public holiday in areas covered by the elections. Employers have been directed to allow staff two to three hours to vote, while schools in all the poll-bound cities remain closed. Both the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) have now confirmed a complete trading holiday for the day.
(With ANI inputs)
Published: 15 Jan 2026, 08:22 am IST
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