BJP-led Mahayuti set to win 25 out of 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra
Mumbai: Breaking the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP on Friday, January 16, emerged as the single largest party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, and also triumphed in Pune, where it made mincemeat of the alliance of NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is set to come to power in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, where elections were held on January 15, Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis said, addressing jubilant party workers in south Mumbai in the evening.
Results of 11 of the 29 civic bodies declared
Results of 11 of the 29 civic bodies have so far been declared which saw Bharatiya Janata Party winning the municipal corporations of Navi Mumbai and Jalgaon while the Congress emerged as the single largest party in Bhiwandi and Kolhapur.
As per the State Election Commission data, the BJP won 65 of the 111 seats in Navi Mumbai. The Shiv Sena won 43, Shiv Sena (UBT) won two seats, while an independent candidate won in one ward.
In Jalgaon, the BJP won 46 of the 75 seats, Shiv Sena 22, NCP one, Shiv Sena (UBT) five, independent one.
In Sangli-Miraj- Kupwada, the BJP won 39 of the 78 seats, Congress won 18, NCP 16, Shiv Sena two and NCP (SP) three.
In Jalna, the BJP won 45 of the 65 seats, Congress nine, Shiv Sena 12 and others three.
In Ulhasnagar in Thane district, the BJP won 37 of the 78 seats, while Shiv Sena wont 36 seats.
In the 90-member Bhiwandi-Nizampur municipal corporation, Congress won 30 and BJP 22 seats. Shiv Sena won 12 and NCP (SP) bagged 12 seats.
In Panvel, BJP won 55 of the 78 seats, Congress four, Shiv Sena two, Shiv Sena (UBT) five and others 10.
In Malegaon, AIMIM won 26 seats of the 84 seats, Shiv Sena 18, the BJP 2 while others won 35 seats.
In Dhule, the BJP bagged 50 seats, NCP eight, Shiv Sena five and others parties won 11.
In Ahilyanagar, the NCP won 27 of the 68 seats, BJP won 25, Congress two, BSP one, Shiv Sena 10, Shiv Sena (UBT) one and others won two seats.
In Kolhapur, the Congress won 34 seats, BJP 26, Shiv Sena 15, NCP four, Shiv Sena (UBT) one and others won a single seat.
PM Modi thanks Maharashtra voters
Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the voters over the emphatic victory of BJP and allies in the civic polls.
“Thank you Maharashtra! The dynamic people of the state bless the NDA’s agenda of pro-people good governance,” Modi posted on X.
The BJP-led alliance was set to surpass the 114-seat majority mark in the 227-member BMC, which is India’s richest civic body, whose budget for 2025-26 is a whopping Rs 74,427 crore.
Counting of votes was held on Friday, a day after the polling saw a 54.77 per cent turnout.
The State Election Commission is yet to release an official statement on all the results. An official said the final results may be announced late in the night.
Coupled with a decent performance by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the BJP is now in the driver’s seat to govern the cash-rich Mumbai civic body.
The high-stakes battle for BMC saw the Thackeray cousins reunite after two decades, only to see their hopes dashed as the results announced so far indicated.
In Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation polls, the BJP is heading towards a massive victory, way ahead of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NCP (SP) alliance.
Fadnavis has emerged as the man of the moment, with the BJP under his leadership surpassing its previous high of 82 seats in the 2017 BMC elections.
The success of BJP’s ‘Mission Mumbai’ has now firmly established it as the key political force in the financial capital.
The result marks a significant shift in Mumbai’s power structure. For years, the BMC was considered the invincible fortress of the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
With the BJP’s victory, the narrative of Mumbai politics has moved from the traditional identity-based ‘Marathi asmita’ to a mandate for the BJP’s plank of vikas’ (development) and urban infrastructure.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane said the BJP and Shiv Sena’s strong showing in the BMC polls amounted to a clear mandate for its Hindutva pitch during the campaign, as the alliance surged ahead in the race.
“Hindutva has always been our soul; one cannot differentiate our Hindutva from development,” Fadnavis said.
Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was elected a corporator in the Jalna Municipal Corporation, winning the elections as an independent candidate.
In Nagpur, home turf of CM Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, counting trends and results for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation suggested a near-repeat of the 2017 results, leaving the Congress struggling to make significant inroads despite an aggressive campaign.
The BJP is on course to surpass the 2017 tally of 108 seats in the 151-member Nagpur civic body.
The Congress, which contested the polls in alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, won elections to the Latur Municipal Corporation, bagging a clear majority with over 40 seats in the 70-member body, leaving the BJP a distant second.
In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunited last month and rival NCP factions – the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and NCP (SP) headed by Sharad Pawar, also forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
In Mumbai, a sour insult turned into a sweet victory for BJP candidates that party leader K Annamalai campaigned for in the BMC polls, as they emerged triumphant, in a befitting reply to MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s ‘rasmalai’ jibe against the Tamil Nadu politician.
While campaigning in Mumbai for the BMC elections, Annamalai had said the city didn’t belong to Maharashtra alone as it was an international city.
The remarks triggered a sharp exchange from MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who slammed Annamalai, mocking him as “rasmalai” and questioning his authority to comment on Mumbai.
Amid trends showing the BJP-Shiv Sena’s aggressive march in the Mumbai civic polls, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said the real picture will emerge only at midnight when the current indications will change after all votes are counted.
In what is being described as a collapse of its urban base, the Congress touched a new low in the BMC elections, and is expecting to win just around 10 per cent of the 227 seats.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) emerged as the dark horse in the civic polls, registering notable gains in Muslim-dominated wards across the state.
AIMIM’s former MP Imtiaz Jaleel said the party was set to win in 100 seats across the state and received strong support in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Dhule, Amravati, Jalna, Malegaon, and Parbhani, besides garnering a few seats in Mumbai.
Elections to the 29 municipal corporations were held on January 15 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.
The elections were held in the following 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.
