BJP Strengthens Hold – BJP-Led Mahayuti Set to Rule 25 of 29 Civic Bodies in Maharashtra Live Events PM Modi Thanks Voters for ‘Pro-People Governance Mandate’ — narendramodi (@narendramodi) BJP Surpasses Its 2017 BMC Performance Under Fadnavis From ‘Marathi Asmita’ to Development Politics in Mumbai BJP Dominates Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad; Congress Struggles in Urban Centres AIMIM Emerges as Dark Horse in Muslim-Dominated Wards Nagpur Nears Repeat of 2017 Results; BJP Strengthens Hold High-Stakes Alliances Fall Flat in Mumbai and Pune Polls Held After Long Gap Across Maharashtra’s Urban Belt as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Addas a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Results for 221 of the 227 wards in Mumbai were declared on Friday, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. The BJP won 87 seats, followed by Shiv Sena (UBT) with 64, Shiv Sena with 27, Congress with 24 and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) with six. The outcome marks a major political shift in Maharashtra’s civic landscape, as the BJP ended the nearly three-decade-long dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena in India’s richest civic body.
Beyond Mumbai, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance also recorded a sweeping victory in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, comfortably outpacing the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, further consolidating its grip over key urban centres in the state. Addressing party workers in south Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is poised to form governments in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations where elections were held on January 15. Mumbai, India’s financial capital, went to the polls after a long delay, and the BJP-led alliance is set to cross the majority mark of 114 seats in the 227-member BMC, the country’s richest civic body with a budget of Rs 74,427 crore for 2025–26.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked voters for the emphatic mandate, calling it an endorsement of the NDA’s governance model. “Thank you Maharashtra! The dynamic people of the state bless the NDA’s agenda of pro-people good governance,” Modi posted on X.
Under Fadnavis’s leadership, the BJP surpassed its previous best tally of 82 seats in the 2017 BMC elections. Coupled with a solid showing by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the BJP is firmly in the driver’s seat to govern Mumbai’s powerful civic body. The victory marks a significant erosion of the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s long-standing influence over the BMC.
As per a PTI report, political observers see the results as a shift in Mumbai’s political narrative, from identity-based ‘Marathi asmita’ to a development-focused agenda centred on urban infrastructure and governance. Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane said the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance received a clear mandate for its Hindutva pitch, blended with development. “Hindutva has always been our soul.
One cannot separate our Hindutva from development,” Fadnavis said. In Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the BJP surged far ahead of the NCP and NCP (SP) alliance.
Meanwhile, the Congress witnessed a sharp decline in its urban base, projected to win only around 10 per cent of BMC seats. However, the Congress managed to secure a clear majority in the Latur Municipal Corporation, winning over 40 seats in the 70-member body. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM emerged as a surprise performer, registering notable gains in Muslim-majority wards across cities such as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Malegaon, Dhule, Amravati, Jalna and Parbhani, along with a presence in Mumbai.
Former MP Imtiaz Jaleel claimed the party was set to win around 100 seats statewide. In Nagpur, the home turf of CM Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, the BJP appeared on course to surpass its 2017 tally of 108 seats in the 151-member civic body, with the Congress failing to make significant gains. The much-talked-about reunion of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray after two decades failed to deliver electoral dividends.
Similarly, the local alliance between rival NCP factions in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad fell short of expectations. Elections were conducted across 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayandar, after a gap of several years, as terms of most civic bodies had ended between 2020 and 2023.
With the BJP’s ‘Mission Mumbai’ delivering results, the party has firmly established itself as the dominant political force in Maharashtra’s urban centres, reshaping the state’s civic power structure ahead of future electoral battles. Inputs from PTI.