For Second phase of civic elections across MaharashtraSix parties in the state – BJP, two Shiv Senas, two NCPs and the Congress – have formed alliances in different combinations to fight each other in the 29 municipal corporations where elections will be held on Thursday (January 15, 2026).
Important cities where civic elections will be held include Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kolhapur, Nagpur to name a few. The results will be declared on 16 January.
The stakes are high on these corporations, which have been run by administrators for the last three years, as all six parties have reshuffled their coalition partners based on their holdings at the local level. In the first round of civil elections held in two phases in December 2025, the Mahayuti and MVA parties fought separately, including several ‘friendly battles’, but stuck to their respective coalition partners after the elections.
Of the 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in which elections were held, Mahayuti won 207 seats – with the BJP winning in 117 municipal bodies, followed by Shiv Sena in 53 and NCP in 37. ​​The MVA managed to win only 52 municipalities – the Congress (28), Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP won only nine and seven respectively.
Even before the voting, 68 candidates of Mahayuti have won ‘unopposed’. These include 44 candidates from BJP, 22 from Sena and two from NCP. The ‘winners’ are spread across Kalyan-Dombivli, Thane, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Panvel, Bhiwandi, Dhule, Jalgaon and Ahilyanagar. Amid opposition uproar, the State Election Commission (SEC) has said it will not declare the winners until the inquiry report is submitted.
Here’s who’s fighting with whom in major cities:
Mumbai
For India’s richest civic body – Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporationn (BMC), BJP has retained Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena as its partner to harm the prospects of Shiv Sena (UBT). Uddhav Thackeray has forgotten his rivalry with cousin Raj Thackeray and has entered into an alliance with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP).
Meanwhile, the Congress has formed an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), while Ajit Pawar’s NCP is contesting the elections independently.
In the 227-member BMC, BJP is contesting on 137 seats and Shiv Sena on 90 seats. Mahayuti’s ally RPI(A) is upset at being left out of the seat sharing and will contest on 20 seats. On Thackeray’s side, the Sena (UBT) will contest on 165 seats, the MNS on 52 seats and the NCP-SP on 10 seats. In the third alliance in the fray, Congress will contest on 143 seats, VBA on 62 seats and smaller allies on six seats, taking the total number of seats in the block to 195. However, on 21 of the 62 seats allotted to it, the VBA failed to find a suitable candidate, leaving 32 seats where the BJP-Shiv Sena will directly contest Thackeray.
NCP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are contesting independently on 94 and 75 seats respectively.
BMC has been with Shiv Sena since 1985 (except 1992–1996) and it is here that the Thackeray family has its strongest hold, having defeated its main rival BJP several times. The BJP, which wants to contest the 2029 assembly elections alone, came close to defeating the Sena in 2017 by winning 82 seats, while the undivided Sena retained its mayor seat by winning 84 seats.
Keen to retain this Thackeray area, the two cousins ​​have buried their twenty-year-old enmity in what is expected to be a joint Shiv Sena-MNS bid for the BMC – for the first time since 2005.
suburbs outside mumbai
Thane is a Shiv Sena stronghold – notably, Eknath ShindeHome ground of. For the 131-seat council, the Sena is contesting 87 seats, the BJP 40 seats and smaller allies have been allotted four seats. There will be a clash between Thackeray and NCP-SP, who are continuing their alliance in Thane, with Sena (UBT) on 53 seats, MNS on 34 and NCP-SP on 36. Congress and NCP are contesting alone on 96 and 75 seats respectively.
In 2017, the Undivided Sena won 67 of the 131 seats to form the council on its own, while the NCP won 34 seats and the BJP won 23 seats. At present, 66 of the 67 Sena councilors elected in 2017 are supporting Mr Shinde, giving him a definite lead. However, Mr Thackeray is counting on the support of the ‘real’ Army. Except from 1987–1993, Shiv Sena has ruled Thane due to the legacy of Shiv Sena stalwarts – Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe.
The alliance is also true in Kalyan-Dombivli where Mr Shinde’s influence is true. His army is contesting on 65 seats and BJP on 57 seats. While NCP was expected to be given 10 seats from any party’s kitty, it did not happen. On the opposition side, Thackeray split the 122 seats, with the Sena (UBT) contesting 68 and the MNS 54. NCP-SP changed alliance and joined Congress-VBA block and is contesting on 45 seats. Congress has captured 55 seats and VBA has captured 12 seats.
The fight is on for Mira-Bhayandar, Navi Mumbai and Bhiwandi as all the main parties are contesting the elections independently, with some of them already winning ‘unopposed’. Local alliances have emerged in Amravati, Jalna, Vasai-Virar with small parties like Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, Bahujan Samaj Party.
Read this also BMC elections: Rise of unstable alliances Explained
Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad
The Pawar clan has come together to regain their property. Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. In 2017, the BJP came to power by winning 97 seats in the 165-member corporation, a first for the saffron party. Like the Thackeray family, Ajit Pawar and NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar have buried their differences in a last-ditch effort to hold on to their stronghold. Ms Supriya Sule and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar both presented a united front and unveiled their joint manifesto and senior NCP leader Sunil Tatkare has not ruled out the merger of the two factions.
In Pune, NCP has fielded 130 candidates while NCP-SP have fielded 43 candidates, resulting in a friendly contest on seven seats. Similarly, in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar’s faction has captured 110 seats, while Sharad Pawar’s faction is contesting 18 seats for the 128-member civic body.
BJP-Shiv Sena alliance talks broke down in Pune as the BJP refused to give more than 15 seats to the Sena, while Mr Shinde demanded 25 seats. The dissident Sena has fielded 119 candidates, fighting a direct fight with the BJP, which has decided to contest the elections alone. The Congress, on the other hand, has forged an alliance with the Thackeray family to take on the Pawars, forgetting its reservations regarding the MNS. Sena (UBT) is contesting on 65 seats, of which MNS has been allotted 21 seats.
Nashik and Dhule
In Nashik and Dhule municipal corporations, smaller grand alliance parties – Shinde’s Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP – have formed an alliance to take on Thackeray-Sharad Pawar and the BJP, which is contesting alone.
unusual post-poll alliance
Post-poll fluidity among Mahayuti allies is evident as it has emerged winner in key councils of Ambernath under Thane district, Parli in Beed and Akot in Akola.
In Ambernath, where voting was held on December 20, the post-poll tussle has worsened as BJP councilors have formed the ‘Ambernath Vikas Aghadi’ along with the Congress and Ajit Pawar’s NCP – securing 31 seats in the 60-member council. This was done to prevent Shinde’s forces, which had won 27 seats, from taking control. While the Congress expelled 12 of its councilors (who immediately joined the BJP), the Sena wrested the Aghadi from the NCP (which won 4 seats) and secured the support of an independent. The Sena-led alliance has successfully elected Sadashiv Hender Patil as the deputy mayor and five other members who were nominated to the council.
Similarly, in Akot, BJP councilors had joined hands with ideological rival – All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).Akot Development Forum‘After the elections. Before the elections, BJP had formed an alliance with NCP, which had sought support from AIMIM after the elections. After CM Devendra Fadnavis reprimanded Akot MLA Prakash Bharsakale, the local BJP unit has distanced itself from it. However, BJP’s candidate for council president – ​​Jiten Barethia – was elected with the support of five AIMIM councillors.
It seems that BJP’s Mahayuti allies have also accepted this idea. In Parli, the NCP, which won 16 seats in the 35-member municipal council, got the support of one AIMIM, two Shiv Sena and four independent councillors.
After facing Shiv Sena’s ultimatum of exit from the alliance, AIMIM councilor Sheikh Ayesha Mohsin has withdrawn her support and NCP is set to stake claim with the support of 22 corporators.
