BMC Elections LIVE: Voting for 29 municipal corporations has commenced at 7:30 am on Thursday. The spotlight is on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti faces a high-stakes battle against the united Thackeray faction for control of the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
This BMC election is significant as it marks the Shiv Sena's first civic poll since its 2022 split, when Eknath Shinde broke away with most MLAs, along with the party's name and symbol. The undivided Shiv Sena had held power in the BMC for 25 years.
Polling for 2,869 seats across 893 wards will take place 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. In Mumbai alone, over 25,000 police personnel will be deployed to ensure smooth polling and counting.
Except for Mumbai, the remaining 28 municipal corporations have multi-member wards. These elections come after a gap of more than six years, as the terms of these civic bodies expired between 2020 and 2023. Nine of the 29 corporations fall within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), India's most urbanised belt.
