Maharashtra civic polls: Voting underway for high-stakes battle in Mumbai, Pune
PTC News Desk: Voting began on Thursday morning for elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. All eyes are on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti and the reunited Thackeray cousins are fighting for control of the city’s wealthy civic body.
Polling for 2,869 seats in 893 wards started at 7.30 am and will continue till 5.30 pm. A total of 3.48 crore people can vote to choose from 15,931 candidates. In Mumbai’s BMC, elections are happening after nine years because they were delayed for four years. The BMC, which has a huge annual budget of over ₹74,400 crore, has 1,700 candidates contesting for 227 seats. More than 25,000 police personnel are deployed across the city to ensure security. Counting of votes will take place on January 16.
These are the first BMC elections since Shiv Sena split in 2022, when Eknath Shinde separated from Uddhav Thackeray and joined hands with the BJP to form the government. Shiv Sena had controlled the BMC for 25 years, from 1997 to 2022.
Before the polls, Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray came together after 20 years to unite Marathi voters. In Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the two NCP factions have formed local alliances. The Congress, once strong in Maharashtra, is trying to regain importance in Mumbai and has tied up with Prakash Ambedkar’s VBA and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh.
- With inputs from agencies
