Voting has wrapped up in Mumbai and 28 other municipal corporations in Maharashtra, bringing the polling day to a close.
Voting occurred from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm on January 15 for the BMC and the surrounding municipal corporations.
BMC voter turnout (%) over the years
1992 | ████████████████████ 49.14
1997 | ██████████████████ 44.36
2002 | ████████████████ 42.05
2007 | ███████████████████ 46.05
2012 | ██████████████████ 44.75
2017 | ████████████████████████ 55.28
The BMC election is closely monitored as a critical contest between the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the united Thackeray faction for control of the nation’s wealthiest civic body.
Per PTI, vote counting for the BMC elections will start at 10 am on Friday, according to civic commissioner Bhushan Gagrani.
“Given the brief interval between polling and counting, all civic wards’ vote counting will begin at 10 am on Friday. It may take about an hour longer than the usual process,” Gagrani stated.
Polling is taking place for 2,869 seats across 893 wards in the 29 municipal corporations, with approximately 3.48 crore voters poised to determine the outcomes for 15,931 candidates. Out of these, 1,700 candidates are contesting in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune.
This election marks the Shiv Sena’s first civic contest since its split in 2022, when Eknath Shinde departed with a majority of MLAs, maintaining the party’s name and symbol. The unified Shiv Sena previously governed the BMC for 25 years.
All other 28 municipal corporations, aside from Mumbai, feature multi-member wards. These civic elections are occurring after a hiatus of over six years, as the terms for these bodies expired between 2020 and 2023. Nine out of the 29 corporations are situated in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), which is India’s most densely urbanized area.
Voter turnout in past BMC elections was recorded at 49.14 percent in 1992, 44.36 percent in 1997, 42.05 percent in 2002, 46.05 percent in 2007, 44.75 percent in 2012, and 55.28 percent in 2017.
Over 25,000 police personnel have been assigned in Mumbai to manage the polling and counting process.
