BMC Election 2026: Why Are Marathi Manoos The Most Engaged And Most Unhappy Voters In Mumbai?

As Mumbai heads into the high-stakes BMC elections of 2026, one voter group stands out for a striking contradiction. The Marathi Manoos — long seen as the backbone of the city’s civic politics — are the most aware, the most engaged, and yet among the most dissatisfied voters in Mumbai.

Data from a recent citywide survey conducted by Ascendia Strategies shows that while Marathi voters are closely plugged into local governance, they are also the quickest to flag failures.

Among all demographic groups surveyed, 68% of Marathi Manoos know the name of their corporator, the highest awareness level across Mumbai. This compares with 60% among Muslims, 59% among other communities, and just 44% among women voters.

This familiarity is not accidental. Marathi voters have historically seen municipal politics — roads, water, drainage, housing — as a direct extension of everyday life. Unlike state or national elections, the BMC is viewed as a space where local representatives are expected to deliver visible results.

That awareness also translates into engagement. Marathi Manoos are the most likely to have contacted their corporator, and they report the highest success rate in issue resolution (30%) among all groups surveyed.

Yet, despite this engagement, dissatisfaction runs deep.

Around 34% of Marathi Manoos say they are unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their corporator’s performance — the highest level of dissatisfaction recorded among major voter groups. This is notably higher than among Muslim voters, who report the highest overall satisfaction levels, and women voters, who show more moderate views.

The survey highlights that potholes and waterlogging (24%), followed by poor sanitation and drinking water (18%), are the top concerns for Marathi Manoos. These are not abstract policy issues but long-standing urban failures that affect daily mobility and quality of life.

Interestingly, while a majority of Marathi voters acknowledge that civic services under the BMC commissioner have improved compared to earlier years, a significant minority still rates conditions as worse, suggesting a split between visible upgrades and lived experience.

This duality, improvement on paper, frustration on the ground, fuels the dissatisfaction.

Perhaps the most important takeaway is how Marathi Manoos vote.

For 52% of them, the work done by the corporator is the single biggest voting factor, more than party symbol, leadership faces, or identity considerations. This is the strongest performance bias seen among all groups surveyed.

At the same time, identity politics has not vanished. A majority still expresses nostalgia for a united Shiv Sena, and nearly half see the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction as the “real” Sena. But even here, uncertainty is high, with a quarter unable to clearly identify which faction represents the party’s legacy.

What this suggests is a voter base caught between emotional political identity and hard civic realities — and increasingly unwilling to let the former excuse failures in the latter.

For political parties, Marathi Manoos represent both opportunity and risk.

In an election where corporator performance is emerging as the dominant theme across communities, Marathi Manoos are likely to set the tone — rewarding visible work and punishing complacency.

In many ways, they reflect the changing nature of Mumbai’s civic voter: informed, demanding, and impatient with excuses.