Maharashtra civic polls: BJP captures BMC after 25 years; saffron surge across state
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is set to come to power in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations
Breaching the bastion of the Thackeray family, the alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Friday (January 16) secured a clear majority in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections by bagging 118 out of 227 seats. The undivided Shiv Sena had ruled the civic body for 25 years since 1997.
The BJP won 89 seats, while the Shinde-led Sena secured 29. The alliance thus crossed the halfway mark of 114 needed to control the country's richest civic body.
The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar alliance managed to win 72 seats. The Shiv Sena-UBT led by Uddhav Thackeray won 65 seats., led by Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray's MNS won six seats, while the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) got only one seat.
Among other parties, the Congress won 24 seats, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen eight, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP three, and the Samajwadi Party two.
Two independent candidates also won in the high-stakes elections, held after a nine-year gap.
Saffron surge across Maharashtra
In Pune, the stronghold of the Pawar clan, the BJP is surging ahead with leads in 91 of the 115 seats for which trends are available, while both NCP factions are leading in just 17 seats in the 165-member Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
Also read: BMC exit polls predict clear win for BJP-Shinde Sena alliance
Similarly, the BJP-led alliance is leading in 105 seats in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), while the Congress is ahead in 33. Nagpur is home to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. However, amid the Mahayuti wave in the state, the Congress has surprised everyone by winning big in Latur Municipal Corporation.
Polling for 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in these municipal corporations, including 227 in Mumbai, took place on Thursday. As many as 15,931 candidates are in the fray in the 29 civic corporations, which had 3.48 crore eligible voters.
Around 50 per cent polling was recorded in the 29 municipal corporations, State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said after the end of voting. A voter turnout of 52.94 per cent was recorded in the Mumbai civic polls, down from 55.53 per cent in the last elections in 2017, officials said on Friday.
In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whose annual budget is over Rs 74, 400 crore, 1,700 candidates are vying for 227 seats in elections being held after a four-year delay. Except for Mumbai, the other urban bodies have multi-member wards.
Follow live updates of BMC election results here.
Live Updates
- 16 Jan 2026 11:57 AM IST
EC 'gaslighting' citizens: Rahul on indelible ink row in Maharashtra civic polls
Amid the row over the quality of 'indelible' ink used in marker pens in Maharashtra civic polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asserted that "vote chori is an anti-national act" and accused the Election Commission of gaslighting citizens.
Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday evening said it would conduct a thorough probe into the quality of the 'indelible' ink in marker pens used for the civic polls, after opposition leaders alleged that the mark on a voter's finger could be removed easily, enabling bogus voting.
Amid polling for 29 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), social media was flooded with videos claiming to demonstrate how the ink could be removed using chemicals such as acetone, even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis dismissed the claims.
Rahul shared on X a media report on the row, which stated that "opposition, voters cry foul over fading ink markers".
"Election commission gaslighting citizens is how trust has collapsed in our democracy. Vote Chori is an anti-national act," Rahul said in his post on X.
- 16 Jan 2026 11:51 AM IST
BMC: BJP-led alliance leads in 62 wards
BJP leading in 46
Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) ahead in 16
- 16 Jan 2026 10:56 AM IST
BJP-led alliance ahead in Mumbai, Shiv Sena leads in Thane civic polls
The BJP and ally Shiv Sena were ahead in high-stakes Mumbai municipal corporation elections as per early trends, after counting of votes began Friday morning.
While there was no official confirmation from the State Election Commission, TV channels said BJP was leading in 31 of the 227 wards in Mumbai, while Shiv Sena, led by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, was ahead in 10 wards.
In Thane, Shinde’s stronghold, his party was leading in nine of the 131 wards, ahead of ally BJP which was ahead in six wards, TV channels reported.
In Pune, the BJP appeared to dominate ally NCP. The saffron party was leading in 32 of the 165 wards, whereas the NCP, led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar was leading in 14 seats.
- 16 Jan 2026 10:38 AM IST
BMC results: BJP-led alliance ahead in early leads
The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is ahead in 34 wards in early leads in BMC.
- 16 Jan 2026 10:09 AM IST
Counting of votes begins
The counting of votes for the Maharashtra civic polls has begun. Elections to the 29 municipal corporations were held after a gap of several years, with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.
Voting took place in these municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.
- 16 Jan 2026 9:29 AM IST
Mumbai civic polls: 52.94 pc turnout recorded; down from 55.53 pc in 2017 elections
A voter turnout of 52.94 per cent was recorded in the Mumbai civic polls, down from 55.53 per cent in the last elections in 2017, officials said on Friday.
Data released by the civic body said ward number 114 in suburban Bhandup recorded the highest turnout at 64.53 per cent, while ward number 227 in south Mumbai’s Colaba area reported the lowest turnout at 20.88 per cent. Of the over 1.03 crore eligible voters in the metropolis, 52.94 per cent exercised their franchise in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls on Thursday between 7.30 am and 5.30 pm, they said.
Officials said counting of votes will start at 10 am at 25 designated counting centres across Mumbai.
The election to the 227-member BMC, which governs India’s richest municipal corporation with a budget of Rs 74,400 crore, is being held after a long gap, making it a key political contest. Nearly 1,700 candidates are in the fray this time. The last BMC polls were held in 2017 with a voter turnout of 55.53 per cent, and the term of the elected body ended in March 2022.
- 16 Jan 2026 8:28 AM IST
Visuals from outside a vote counting station in Mumbai
Visuals from outside the counting station at BMC School in Sion Koliwada in Mumbai.
