BJP on Friday emerged as the winner in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. This win marks significance as it broke the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena.
It also vanquished the alliance of NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar in the Pune civic body.
Results for the civic polls in all 277 wards in Mumbai were declared around midnight, with BJP winning 89 seats and ally Shiv Sena bagging 29 seats.
Shiv Sena (UBT) won 65 seats and MNS won six seats.
The Congress, which fought in alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, bagged 24 seats, AIMIM 8, NCP 3, Samajwadi Party 2 and NCP (SP) got just one seat.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is set to come to power in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, where elections were held on January 15, Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis said, addressing jubilant party workers in south Mumbai in the evening.
In a post on X, PM Modi extended gratitude to the people across Maharashtra as Mahayuti marches towards victory in the state's civic polls.
"Thank you Maharashtra! The dynamic people of the state bless the NDA’s agenda of pro-people good governance!" he posted on X.
Counting of votes in elections in Mumbai and 28 other municipal corporations, held on January 15, commenced on Friday morning and continued till late in the night.
Results in 2,833 of the 2,868 seats in these 29 civic bodies were also declared.
There was no official statement from the SEC on the remaining 35 seats till midnight.
The BJP won 1400 and ally Shiv Sena bagged 397 seats, while Shiv Sena (UBT) got 153 and MNS 13 seats in the state.
The Congress bagged 324 seats.
The BJP-led alliance bagged 118 seats to surpass the 114-seat majority mark in the 227-member BMC, which is India's richest civic body, whose budget for 2025-26 is a whopping Rs 74,427 crore.
Coupled with a decent performance by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, the BJP is now in the driver's seat to govern the cash-rich Mumbai civic body.
In Thane, the home turf of Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, his Shiv Sena pulled off a victory for the Mahayuti, winning 75 of the 131 seats, while ally BJP won 28 seats.
The State Election Commission said the polling percentage in the 29 civic bodies was 54.77.
The high-stakes battle for BMC saw the Thackeray cousins reunite after two decades, only to see their hopes dashed as the results announced so far indicated.
In Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation polls, the BJP is heading towards a massive victory, way ahead of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NCP (SP) alliance.
Fadnavis has emerged as the man of the moment, with the BJP under his leadership surpassing its previous high of 82 seats in the 2017 BMC elections.
The success of BJP's 'Mission Mumbai' has now firmly established it as the key political force in the financial capital.
The result marks a significant shift in Mumbai's power structure.
For years, the BMC was considered the invincible fortress of the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
With the BJP's victory, the narrative of Mumbai politics has moved from the traditional identity-based 'Marathi asmita' to a mandate for the BJP's plank of vikas' (development) and urban infrastructure.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane said the BJP and Shiv Sena's strong showing in the BMC polls amounted to a clear mandate for its Hindutva pitch during the campaign, as the alliance surged ahead in the race.
"Hindutva has always been our soul; one cannot differentiate our Hindutva from development," Fadnavis said.
Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was elected a corporator in the Jalna Municipal Corporation, winning the elections as an independent candidate.
In Nagpur, home turf of CM Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, results showed the Congress struggling to make significant inroads despite an aggressive campaign.
Results of all the 151 seats in the 151-member Nagpur civic body have been declared.
The BJP got 102 seats, while the Congress got 34 seats.
The Congress, which contested the polls in alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, won elections to the Latur Municipal Corporation, bagging a clear majority with 43 seats in the 70-member body, leaving the BJP a distant second at 22.
In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunited last month and rival NCP factions - the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and NCP (SP) headed by Sharad Pawar, also forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The BJP won 96 seats in Pune, while the NCP bagged 20 seats and NCP (SP) managed to secure just three.
In Pimpri Chinchwad, the BJP won 84 seats, while the NCP was relegated to the second spot, bagging 37 seats.
The NCP (SP) could not win even a single seat there.
In Mumbai, a sour insult turned into a sweet victory for BJP candidates that party leader K Annamalai campaigned for in the BMC polls, as they emerged triumphant, in a befitting reply to MNS chief Raj Thackeray's 'rasmalai' jibe against the Tamil Nadu politician.
While campaigning in Mumbai for the BMC elections, Annamalai had said the city didn't belong to Maharashtra alone as it was an international city.
The remarks triggered a sharp exchange from MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who slammed Annamalai, mocking him as 'rasmalai' and questioning his authority to comment on Mumbai.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that had Maharashtra Deputy Chief Eknath Shinde not betrayed the party, Mumbai would have never seen a BJP mayor.
In a post on X, Raut drew parallel to Jaichand, a 12th century king, who has become a metaphor for treachery.
"Had Eknath Shinde not been a Jaichand to Shiv Sena, Mumbai would not have seen a BJP mayor.
Marathi people will always remember Shinde as Jaichand," Raut said.
In an apparent collapse of its urban base, the Congress touched a new low in the BMC elections, and won less than 10 per cent of the seats.
Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) emerged as the dark horse in the civic polls, registering notable gains in Muslim-dominated wards across the state.
AIMIM's former MP Imtiaz Jaleel said the party was set to win in 100 seats across the state and received strong support in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Dhule, Amravati, Jalna, Malegaon, and Parbhani, besides garnering a few seats in Mumbai.
As many as 19 independents also won from the 29 civic bodies, where elections were held after a gap of several years, with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023.
Of these, nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.
The elections were held in the following municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, 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.
