The Mumbai civic body or the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest corporation, will go to polls on January 15, with counting of votes on January 16. The State Election Commission
on Monday announced the poll schedule for BMC, along with 28 other civic corporations. As many as 2,869 seats in these municipal corporations will be up for grabs, said State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, adding that 3.48 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in these major urban centres of the state. The elections for all 29 corporations, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, will be held in a single phase. The code of conduct has come into effect from today. Voting will take place in 227 wards in Mumbai and 111 wards in Navi Mumbai.
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The BMC elections are considered crucial for political supremacy in Mumbai. The polls will see a direct contest between two major alliances — the ruling Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi. The Mahayuti which governs the state comprises the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The main opposition alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, includes the Indian National Congress, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) and the Shard Pawar-led faction of NCP-SP. Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is likely to join hands with Sena UBT.
The announcement ends the prolonged delay in urban local body elections across the state, many of which have been overdue for several years.
The schedule
Nomination filing: December 23 to 30
Scrutiny: December 31
Withdrawal: January 2, 2026
Final list of candidate and distribution of symbols: January 3, 2026
Voting: January 15, 2026
Counting of votes: January 16, 2026.
#WATCH | Mumbai: Dinesh T Waghmare, Maharashtra State Election Commissioner, says, "The election schedule for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. Filing of nominations from 23rd December to 30th December 2025… Date of poll is 15th January, 2026, and counting of votes is… pic.twitter.com/wtdEkXyTar
— ANI (@ANI) December 15, 2025
What the SEC said
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Waghmare said the entire election process would be conducted in line with the final directions of the Supreme Court. The notification for the BMC elections will be issued on December 16, while notifications for the remaining 28 municipal corporations will be published on December 18. Voting will take place between 7.30 am and 5.30 pm on polling day.
The elections will be held against the backdrop of long-expired tenures of civic bodies. Five municipal corporations completed their terms in 2020, as many as 18 in 2022, and four in 2023. Two — Jalna and Ichalkaranji — are newly created municipal corporations. Senior administrators have been running most of these bodies in the absence of elected representatives, a situation that has often drawn criticism from political parties and civic activists alike.
The SEC has also outlined key features of the polling process. While Mumbai will follow a single-member ward system, the remaining 28 municipal corporations will go to polls under a multi-member ward system, where voters will be required to cast between three and five votes depending on the number of seats in their ward. Nomination forms will be accepted offline, responding to demands raised by political parties and candidates.
In terms of scale, the elections will involve over 3.48 crore voters and nearly 39,147 polling stations across the state. The commission has made arrangements for adequate Electronic Voting Machines, including nearly 44,000 control units and close to 88,000 ballot units. Special measures have been planned to assist senior citizens, persons with disabilities, pregnant women and voters with children, including ramps, wheelchairs and priority access at polling booths.
The SEC has also stressed vigilance against duplicate voters and misuse of media during the campaign. A dedicated mobile application, ‘Matadhikar’, has been launched to help voters locate their names, polling stations and candidate details. Strict restrictions on campaign advertisements will come into force 48 hours before polling ends, and media certification and monitoring committees will oversee election-related content.
All eyes on BMC
The estimated budget of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the year 2025-26 is Rs. 74,427 crore, and the expenditure stands at Rs 43,162 crore, representing 58% of the total budget allocated to development projects. This gigantic budget is unmatched by any other state or municipal corporation in the country, cementing the BMC’s status as Asia’s wealthiest civic body.
Mumbai is the financial capital of the country, and as its key governing body, the BMC manages to oversee infrastructure to health, roads to water supply, transport to power supply, education to sanitation.
What’s at stake in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai?
Thackerays vs Shinde, BJP: The Thackerays’ reputation is on the line in the Mumbai municipal elections. There is a possibility that Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s MNS may contest together. The Thackeray brothers are up against the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. In the last election in 2017, even though they were in alliance at the state level, BJP and Shiv Sena contested separately in Mumbai.
Shinde vs Naik in Navi Mumbai: In Navi Mumbai, there was a verbal clash between Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BJP leader and minister Ganesh Naik, which led to some tension between BJP and Shiv Sena.
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The prep on ground
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mumbai unit on Friday announced a 144-member steering committee for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls likely to take place next month. The panel, which will be headed by city unit chief Amit Satam, includes cabinet ministers, sitting MLAs like Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar, and senior leaders Kirit Somaiya, Prakash Mehta, Gopal Shetty, among others. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BJP state president Ravindra Chavan, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal and BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde are special invitees, the party said. The committee has been formed to prepare the organisation for the upcoming BMC elections and coordinate strategy across Mumbai’s wards, the BJP added.
The previous elections were held in 2017
The 2017 elections saw a close contest in the BMC. The Shiv Sena, which was then undivided, won 84 seats. However, the BJP, won 82 seats, recording a gain of over 50 seats from the previous election. The Congress (INC) was left far behind with 31 seats.
In 2012, the Shiv Sena had secured 75 seats, followed by the Congress at 52 seats and the BJP at 31.
In the 2007 elections, the Shiv Sena had secured 84 seats, followed by the Congress at 75 and BJP at 28.
With PTI, Agency inputs
