The BMC polls mark the Shiv Sena's first civic election since its 2022 split, when Eknath Shinde broke away with a majority of MLAs, along with the party's name and symbol. The undivided Shiv Sena had controlled the BMC for 25 years.
Polling for 2,869 seats across 893 wards will be held from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm on January 15, with counting scheduled for January 16. Around 3.48 crore voters will decide the fate of 15,931 candidates, including 1,700 in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune. More than 25,000 police personnel will be deployed in Mumbai alone to oversee the polling and counting process.
Except for Mumbai, all other 28 municipal corporations have multi-member wards. The elections are being held after a gap of over six years, as the terms of these civic bodies ended between 2020 and 2023. Nine of the 29 corporations are located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), India's most urbanised belt.
