New Delhi: The stage is set for the first electoral contest of 2026 as elections will be held for 29 local bodies. Maharashtra Scheduled for January 15th. These elections were pending for a long time due to legal battle.According to the Maharashtra Election Commission, elections for these corporations were held on different dates between 2015 and 2018. Elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which governs Mumbai, and 17 other major cities were last held in 2017. Five municipal corporations, including Vasai-Virar, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivli, had held elections in 2015, while four others – Dhule, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar and Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad – had elected their mayors in 2018.
Interestingly, several tectonic shifts were witnessed before the elections. While the Thackeray and Pawar families entered into an alliance, many corporators from different parties jumped ship just before the elections.what is at stakeThe budget of the BMC is more than Rs 74,000 crore – which is more than the GDP of many states in the country and many countries around the world.Geographically, Mumbai, along with its suburbs, Pune and Nashik constitute not even one-fourth of the total area of Maharashtra. However, the region is important because of its wealth and the industries it operates. Therefore, corporations in these sectors are extremely important to political parties.Therefore, it is inevitable that these elections become a testing ground for parties and alliances. Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are the main contenders, but regional and smaller parties are also in the fray and are determined to make their presence felt at the local level of urban governance. BJP And Shiv SenaThe constituent parties of Mahayuti are contesting on 137 and 90 seats respectively. Third Mahayuti ally, NCPFighting independently, it has fielded 94 candidates, which means the party will field its state-level allies on around 100 seats if no nominations are withdrawn.opposition Congress has fielded 143 candidates, while its new ally, former MP Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), has fielded 42 contestants, even though it was allotted 62 seats in a pre-poll agreement with the national party.Congress’s ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) has fielded six candidates.Former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) is contesting on more than 150 seats, NCP (SP) on 11 and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on the remaining seats.Thackeray bhai uniteIn the upcoming elections, the Thackeray brothers – Uddhav and Raj Thackeray – have decided to join hands after 20 years and are contesting on the issue of “Maratha pride”.
Raj Thackeray announced the alliance between Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, saying, “We will ensure that Marathi people get what they want.”
natural ally
- Both the Army (UBT) and the MNS are “natural allies”. He derives his political heritage from the Shiv Sena founded by the late Bal Thackeray, which was rooted in Marathi identity. Since then, the emotive issue of Marathi pride has remained central to both parties.
- Since launching MNS in 2006, Raj Thackeray has emphasized an anti-North India stance as his political trademark. Meanwhile, Uddhav has supported the “Marathi Manoos” narrative to further his agenda.
- Both the parties performed poorly in the assembly elections held in 2024. Ahead of the local body elections, the issue of Marathi identity – through opposition to the imposition of Hindi – has given both parties new energy to ignite Marathi pride among voters.
‘Pawar’ allianceMeanwhile, Ajit Pawar-led NCP also announced that it will contest the Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune local body elections in alliance with the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).“For the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections, the ‘Ghadi’ and the ‘Tutari’ (trumpet) have become one. The family has come together,” Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said while announcing the alliance.However, the announcement came with a condition – the decision has been taken only for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, and family patriarch Sharad Pawar was not involved in the decision-making process.
This comes two years after Ajit Pawar parted ways with his uncle Sharad Pawar along with a group of senior leaders and joined hands with the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. He had objected to Sharad Pawar continuing to lead the party despite his age.Under the new alliance, Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister. He supported an alliance with the ruling coalition, while Sharad Pawar’s faction insisted on remaining with the opposition.The Election Commission later recognized Ajit Pawar’s faction as the legitimate NCP, retaining the ‘clock’ election symbol. Sharad Pawar’s faction, NCP (SP), adopted the ‘Tutari’ (curved trumpet) symbol.Both the groups contested the elections separately. After the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where his faction faced setbacks, Ajit Pawar admitted that turning his back on the family was a “mistake”.In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Ajit Pawar’s NCP increased its lead in the Lok Sabha elections to 41 MLAs in just six assembly constituencies, and defeated senior Pawar candidates in 27 head-to-head contests; The latter won seven.Will NCP (SP) join NDA?During the campaign, Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Shirsat raised speculation over the possibility of NCP (SP) joining the BJP-led NDA government.He said adjustment at the local level could be a precursor to broader political understanding.Shirsat said, “In the coming future, there is a possibility that Sharad Pawar may join the NDA. Did anyone believe that he would join hands with Uddhav Thackeray? But he did so and he remained in power for two and a half years.”“He opposed Sonia Gandhi and left the Congress, and then immediately formed an alliance with her. It would not be surprising if he joins the NDA. If you study politics, this has been his career pattern,” he said.Will MVA disintegrate?The coming together of the Thackeray brothers and Pawar senior and junior signals the silent end of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – the opposition front that Uddhav Thackeray formed with the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP in 2019 to keep the BJP out of power after the assembly elections.The opposition alliance performed strongly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, winning 30 out of 48 seats in the state. However, this glory was short-lived as the MVA was wiped out in the assembly elections held at the end of the year, winning only 46 of the 288 seats collectively.Ahead of the local body elections, given Raj Thackeray’s aggressive “outsider” pitch against North Indians, the Congress had refused to join hands with Raj Thackeray’s MNS, following which it was pulled out of the alliance.The grand old party, which had earlier claimed that it would contest alone on all 227 wards on January 15, has now joined hands with Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA, allotting it 62 seats.Apart from the VBA, the Congress has allotted 10 seats to the RSP and two seats to the Republican Party of India (Gavai faction), leaving party city unit officials upset, the leaders said.Congress’s move to chart its own path in Maharashtra is a bold step. The party, which had a strong presence in state politics until 2009, has seen a decline in its electoral fortunes since then.In the 2024 assembly elections, the Congress won only 16 of the 101 seats it contested. Its vote share stood at 12.42% – the lowest for a party in Maharashtra, though still higher than all other players except the BJP.However, this single fight pits the Congress directly against the BJP, which has been the undisputed winner in recent electoral contests. The move also split the opposition’s standing in the civic polls, benefiting the BJP-led grand alliance.Who won the last local body elections?The last elections in municipal corporations were mainly dominated by BJP and Shiv Sena, which formed governments in 15 municipal corporations, including Mumbai and Thane.The BJP won majority on its own in 13 corporations including Pune, Jalgaon, Mira-Bhayandar, Nagpur and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Shiv Sena has secured majority in its stronghold Thane. In Mumbai, he rules as partner until his term ends in 2022.Who dominates the city council elections?The BJP-led alliance won a sweeping verdict after two rounds of the first phase of Maharashtra civic elections, winning chairpersonships in nearly 207 of the 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayats.BJP emerged as the biggest beneficiary with victory in over 117 local bodies, while MVA was reduced to 44 positions.
Despite emerging as a distant challenger across the state, the Congress halted the BJP’s advance in parts of Vidarbha. Mahayuti allies were seen battling each other in western Maharashtra as Congress and NCP (SP) struggled to gain ground.Meanwhile, the BJP made gains in Mumbai and Konkan and captured the pockets of the traditional Shiv Sena, PWP and NCP. The Shinde-led force expanded beyond the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and stood second in the entire state.
