BJP and Allies Secure Victory in Maharashtra Municipal Elections
Election Results Overview
On Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners emerged victorious in the majority of the 29 municipal corporation elections held in Maharashtra.
The voting occurred on Thursday, with some civic body elections taking place after a four-year hiatus.
In total, six significant political parties participated in the elections, including the BJP, Congress, and two factions each from the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), forming various alliances across the 29 cities.
Mumbai Election Results
As of 7:30 AM on Saturday, the BJP, alongside the faction of Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, secured 116 seats in Mumbai, with the BJP winning 89 of those.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, recognized as the wealthiest civic body in India, comprises 227 seats, requiring 114 for a majority.
The opposition alliance, which includes the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, managed to win 71 seats, with the Uddhav faction claiming 65.
The Congress party, running independently, captured 24 seats.
Historically, the city had a mayor from the undivided Shiv Sena from 1996 until 2022, marking the end of the previous civic body's term.
Several exit polls had forecasted a significant victory margin for the BJP-Shinde Sena coalition in Mumbai.
Pollster Axis My India had projected that the BJP-Shinde Sena alliance would secure between 131 to 151 seats out of 227, while the Uddhav Sena-MNS alliance, which includes the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, was expected to win between 58 to 68 seats.
Results in Other Major Cities
In Pune, the BJP triumphed by winning 123 out of 165 seats, defeating the two factions of the NCP. The Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP secured 21 seats, while Sharad Pawar’s group obtained three. The Congress party garnered 16 seats.
The BJP also outperformed the NCP factions in their traditional stronghold of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
In Nagpur, the state's second capital, the BJP claimed 102 of the 151 seats, with the Congress winning 35.
In Thane, the Shinde Sena won 72 seats, surpassing the required 66 for victory, while the BJP, contesting separately, secured 28 seats. In Kalyan-Dombivali, the Shinde Sena won 53 of the 122 seats, three more than the BJP, which was also running independently. The Uddhav Sena managed to win 11 seats.
In Navi Mumbai, the BJP won 65 out of 111 seats, ahead of the Shinde Sena's 43.
The Congress emerged as the largest party in Latur, Kolhapur, Bhiwandi, and Chandrapur.
In Jalna, Shrikant Pangarkar, who is implicated in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, won as an independent candidate from a ward.
Notably, nearly two weeks prior to the elections, 68 candidates from the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition were elected unopposed after several opposition candidates withdrew their nominations. This included 44 from the BJP and 22 from the Shinde Sena, with the remaining two from Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction.
Despite the wins, the ruling alliance did not gain control of any municipal corporation. The State Election Commission has requested reports from the municipal corporations following allegations of irregularities in the nomination process raised by the opposition.