By Admin 
Voting ended at 5:30 pm on Thursday (January 15, 2025) for 29 municipal corporations, including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest municipal body in the country. The fate of a total of 1,700 candidates for 227 wards in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections is to be decided shortly. Counting of votes will start from 10 am on Friday (January 16, 2026), whereas usually the opening of votes starts from 8 am.
BMC is Asia’s largest municipal body with a budget of more than Rs 74,000 crore in 2025-26, due to which this election is being watched across the country. State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said that more than 3.48 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in these municipal bodies of major urban centers of Maharashtra. Out of 29 municipal corporations, Ichalkaranji and Jalna municipal bodies are newly formed bodies.
The last election of Mumbai Municipal Corporation was held in the year 2017, whose term ended in 2022. However, elections were never held again after that and the matter reached the Supreme Court. This election is taking place at a time when Shiv Sena and NCP have broken and the party is divided into two groups. There is an alliance between BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde faction). BJP is contesting on 137 seats while Shinde’s Shiv Sena has fielded candidates on 90 seats.
On the other hand, Thackeray Brothers have come together. Shiv Sena UBT has formed alliance with MNS. Shiv Sena (UBT) contested on 163 seats and MNS on 52 seats. Congress formed an alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). Congress is contesting on 143 seats and VBA on 46 seats. Ajit Pawar’s NCP has not joined hands with any party and is contesting elections on 94 seats.
There are many such VIP seats in this election, on which everyone is keeping an eye. Kishori Pednekar (Shiv Sena UBT) from Ward 193 Khar-Santa Cruz, Ravi Raja (BJP) from Ward 205 Goregaon West, Tejasvi Ghoshalkar (BJP) from Ward 179 Bandra West, Harshvardhan Sapkal (Congress) from Ward 214 Andheri East, Rahul Shewale (Shiv Sena Shinde faction) from Ward 224 Mulund West. It is included in those seats where the contest is expected to be interesting.