Elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and 28 other municipal corporations across Maharashtra are set for January 15, with vote counting scheduled for January 16, the State Election Commission announced on Friday.
A total of 2,869 seats across these civic bodies will be contested, according to the SEC.
State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, while announcing the much-anticipated poll schedule at a press conference, said that the nomination process will begin on December 23 and continue until December 30.
The 29 civic bodies going to polls, including the BMC, have 2,869 seats in total, with 3.48 crore voters eligible to cast their votes in these major urban centers of the state. Key cities where elections will be held include Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
‘Vote Chori’ Controversy in Maharashtra
The announcement comes amid growing political tensions in Mumbai over allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft). Opposition parties have raised concerns that the electoral rolls have been inflated with fictitious and duplicate voters ahead of these crucial civic elections.
The BMC has initiated a clean-up of the voters’ list, while Shiv Sena (UBT) has launched its own ground-level verification drive across all 227 civic wards. The party claims its workers have identified thousands of bogus and duplicate entries, which could significantly affect election results. Sena (UBT) also argues that many long-term residents, particularly Marathi voters, have been wrongly marked as duplicates, potentially affecting their right to vote.
These elections are particularly high-stakes for the Sena (UBT), as they mark the first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena. The party faces a direct contest with the Eknath Shinde-led faction, which is aligned with the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra.
