Mumbai, Jan 15 (UNI) Voting is underway across Maharashtra on Thursday for elections to 29 municipal corporations, marking a crucial moment in the State’s urban political landscape.
The spotlight is firmly on Mumbai, where residents are casting their votes in the long-awaited Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections after a nine-year gap.
In Mumbai alone, 1,700 candidates are contesting on 227 seats in India’s wealthiest civic body, which operates with an annual budget exceeding Rs 74,400 crore. The polls, delayed by nearly four years, are widely seen as a litmus test for major political players following dramatic shifts in Maharashtra’s politics since 2022.
Polling for a total of 2,869 seats across 893 wards in the 29 municipal corporations began at 7:30 am under tight security and will continue until 5:30 pm .Around 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the political fate of 15,931 candidates. Counting of votes is scheduled for January 16. Unlike other cities, Mumbai follows a single-member ward system.
Except for Mumbai, all other urban local bodies have multi-member wards. The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on January 16.
To boost voter participation, the civic administration has introduced several voter-friendly initiatives. Polling booths have been visually enhanced with floral decorations, pink booths have been set up to encourage women voters, selfie points have been created, and Sakhi centres have been established.
Security has been significantly tightened, particularly in Mumbai, where over 25,000 police personnel have been deployed. Of the 39,092 polling stations across the State, more than 3,000 have been classified as sensitive. Voting is being conducted using electronic voting machines, with a substantial number of control and ballot units reserved for the capital city.
The Mumbai civic polls carry exceptional political importance. This is the first BMC election since the Shiv Sena split in 2022, when Eknath Shinde broke away from the party and made an alliance with the BJP. The contest has now evolved into a high-stakes battle between the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the reunited Thackeray cousins, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Mumbai has historically been the backbone of the Thackeray family’s political influence. The undivided Shiv Sena controlled the BMC for nearly 25 years until 2022. The current election year holds added symbolic value, coinciding with the centenary of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray’s birth and the party’s 60th anniversary.
The joint campaign by Uddhav and Raj Thackeray has centred on issues of Marathi identity, language, employment, and concerns about Mumbai’s political future. Their narrative has urged Marathi voters to unite to safeguard the city’s cultural character. In response, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has countered that the election is about leadership and governance rather than identity politics.
Prominent personalities were seen voting early in the day. union Minister Piyush Goyal and actor Akshay Kumar appealed to citizens to participate actively in the democratic process, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, voting in Nagpur, emphasised the importance of choosing the right candidate over the NOTA option.
Congress, AAP, AIMIM, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, and both factions of the NCP are contesting independently or in varying alliances; the BMC election has turned into a complex, multi-cornered contest. As voting continues, the results are expected to shape Mumbai’s civic governance and redefine political equations in Maharashtra.
The central question in the BMC polls is whether the Shiv Sena (UBT)–MNS combine, along with the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), can effectively challenge the BJP-led Mahayuti, spearheaded by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Shinde.
