January 15 polls in Mumbai, 28 other civic bodies a litmus test for ruling, Oppn blocs

Mumbai, Dec 15 (PTI) Elections to 29 municipal corporations, including the cash-rich Mumbai, on January 15 will be a crucial political showdown between the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in major urban centres a year after assembly polls.

The poll schedule announcement was made by Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) in compliance of an order from the Supreme Court fixing January 31 next year as the deadline for holding the long-pending local body elections in the state.

The court in September this year had also censured the SEC for its "failure to take prompt action" and adhere to earlier timelines.

The elections, involving 2,869 seats and over 3.48 crore voters, set the stage for a crucial political showdown between the ruling Mahayuti comprising BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Opposition MVA coalition of Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Sharad Pawar-headed NCP.

Votes will be counted on January 16.

Asia's largest civic body with more than Rs 74,000 crore budget in 2025-26, the BMC was ruled by the undivided Shiv Sena with the BJP as its junior ally for more than two decades till 2017 and the polls will be a litmus test for former CM Uddhav Thackeray and his party Shiv Sena (UBT).

Ahead of the polls, Uddhav Thackeray mended ties with his once-estranged cousin Raj and both Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by the latter are expected to join hands to put up a united fight.

Shiv Sena (UBT)'s ally in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Congress, has announced it will contest the Mumbai civic polls alone. After initial bickering, especially between BJP and Shiv Sena, the ruling Mahayuti, which also consists of the NCP, decided to contest the civic polls together.

The model code of conduct (MCC) has come into force in all poll-bound municipal corporation areas, State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare announced at a press conference.

He noted the elections are being conducted as per Supreme Court directive to complete polls to all local bodies, whose term has ended, before January 31.

The IAS officer said elections to 12 Zilla Parishads, which don't cross the 50 per cent reservation limit, will be announced soon.

While one corporator will be elected from each seat in Mumbai, three to five corporators will get chosen by voters per ward in 28 other civic bodies.

The break up of 29 corporations is: Total wards: 893, total seats: 2,869, seats for women: 1,442, SCs 341, STs, 77 and OBC seats 759.

Waghmare said filing of nominations will begin on December 23 and the process will go on till December 30. Scrutiny of papers will be done on December 31 and January 2 is the last date of withdrawal of nominations.

Symbol allocation and final list of candidates will be published on January 3.

The notification for BMC elections will be issued on December 16 and those for the remaining 28 municipal corporations on December 18. Respective municipal commissioners will issue the notifications at their level.

Voting in all municipal corporations will be held from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm.

With announcement of the election schedule, the MCC has come into force in municipal corporation areas. Though it applies within corporation limits, no announcement or action that may influence voters of these areas can be taken anywhere else either, according to the SEC.

Acting on the SC directive, the SEC conducted elections to 263 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in the first phase on December 2. The remaining 24 councils and nagar panchayats (one of them saw unopposed election of members) will vote on December 20. Counting of all votes polled (on December 2 and 20) will be taken up on December 21.

Poll schedule for Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis whose termed have expired is still to be announced.

Out of the 29 corporations, Ichalkaranji and Jalna civic bodies are newly created bodies. Of the remaining 27, term of five civic bodies ended in 2020 and that 18 corporations, including Mumbai, in 2022. The term of three civic bodies expired in 2023.

Although the SEC has provided an online system for filing nominations and affidavits, papers for municipal corporation elections will be accepted only in traditional offline mode.

Waghmare said 39,147 polling stations, including 10,111 in Mumbai, will be set up for the civic polls and adequate EVMs have been arranged.

The voter lists existing as on July 1, 2025, -- which has been updated ward-wise -- will be used for elections. Since the electoral lists are from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the SEC has no right to delete or add names, the senior bureaucrat clarified.

However, special care has been taken to identify possible duplicate voters, he maintained.

Final ward-wise voter lists were published on December 15. Lists of polling station buildings will be published on December 20, and polling station-wise voter lists on December 27.

Suspected duplicate voters have been marked with a special symbol. Such voters have been verified through door-to-door checks and asked to confirm the polling station where they will vote. If required, they will be asked to submit a written declaration at the polling station, affirming they have not voted at any other booth, the commissioner said.

Municipal commissioners have been instructed to carry out large-scale voter awareness campaigns using traditional and digital media to increase voter turnout, especially in large cities like Mumbai.

Besides the BMC, the civic bodies going to polls include corporations of Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivali, Kolhapur, Ulhasnagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Latur, Parbhani, Chandrapur, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Malegaon, Panvel, Mira-Bhayander, Nanded-Waghala, Sangli-Miraj- Kupwad, Jalgaon, Dhule, Ahilyanagar, Ichalkaranji and Jalna. PTI MR BNM VT SKL RSY