Maha polls: Voting underway for BMC, 28 local bodies as 3.48 crore decide fate of 15,931

January 15, 2026

Mumbai: Polling in 29 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), commenced at 7:30 a.m. and will conclude at 5:30 p.m. While elections were originally scheduled for 2,869 seats, including 227 in the BMC, they will now be held for 2,801 seats as 68 candidates were elected unopposed. No polling will occur for these 68 seats. A total of 3.48 crore voters will decide the fate of 15,931 candidates, including 1,729 in Mumbai. The counting will take place on January 16.

According to the State Election Commission, there are a total of 39,147 polling stations with 43,958 Control Units and 87,916 Ballot Units. In Mumbai, there are 10,111 polling stations equipped with 11,349 Control Units and 22,698 Ballot Units.

Key Battlegrounds 

The battlegrounds include Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.

Elections to the 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of more than six years, since their tenure ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), India’s most urbanised belt.

Except for Mumbai, elections in the other 28 municipal corporations are being conducted under the multi-member ward system. In Mumbai, voters will cast only one vote as each ward elects a single representative. In the remaining 28 corporations, most wards will have four seats, while some may have three or five. The campaign saw the state’s major coalitions — Mahayuti (BJP, Shiv Sena-Eknath Shinde, NCP-Ajit Pawar) and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) (Shiv Sena-UBT, INC, NCP-Sharad Pawar) — clash over infrastructure, welfare schemes, and urban redevelopment.

Mobile app launched by SEC 

The SEC has launched a mobile app (available on Google Play Store) to help citizens find their names, polling booths, and candidate details using their name or EPIC (Voter ID) number. Senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PwD), pregnant women, and mothers with infants will receive priority. Ramps and wheelchairs have been mandated at all stations. In areas with high female voter density, special ‘Pink Booths’ have been set up, staffed entirely by women officers and police personnel. To prevent disputes and maintain secrecy, the SEC has strictly prohibited mobile phones inside polling booths.