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, Wins Latur Corporation AIMIM Emerges as Dark Horse in Muslim-Dominated Wards Political Barbs Fly as Results Seal BJP’s Urban Breakthrough 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 were declared for 2,833 of the 2,868 seats across Maharashtra’s civic polls on Friday, with the BJP emerging as the clear frontrunner. The party won around 1,400 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 397, Congress with 324, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 160, and Shiv Sena (UBT) with 153 seats, indicating a decisive shift in the state’s urban political landscape.
In Mumbai, results for 221 of the 227 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wards were declared by 11 pm. The BJP led the tally with 87 seats, while its ally Shiv Sena secured 27.
Shiv Sena (UBT) won 64 seats, the Congress, contesting in alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, bagged 24, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) secured six seats. Counting of votes for elections held on January 15 in Mumbai and 28 other municipal corporations began on Friday morning and continued late into the night. The results mark a major political realignment, 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 posted sweeping victories in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, comfortably outpacing the rival NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, and tightening its grip over key urban centres across Maharashtra. 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, the BJP secured a resounding victory, winning 96 seats, while the NCP managed 20 seats and the NCP (SP) won just three. In neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad, the BJP bagged 84 seats, relegating the NCP to second place with 37 seats.
The NCP (SP) failed to win a single seat there. The results dealt a major blow to the Pawar-led factions, which had forged local alliances ahead of the polls.
The Congress suffered a sharp decline in Mumbai, winning less than 10 per cent of the BMC seats. However, the party scored a significant victory in Latur Municipal Corporation, securing 43 of the 70 seats, leaving the BJP at a distant second with 22 seats. In Nagpur, the home turf of Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, the BJP won 102 of the 151 seats, while the Congress managed 34.
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.
The high-stakes BMC battle saw Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunite after two decades, only for their hopes to be dashed by the results. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut accused Deputy CM Eknath Shinde of betrayal, drawing parallels with historical figures associated with treachery.
Meanwhile, BJP candidates backed by party leader K Annamalai won key seats in Mumbai, turning Raj Thackeray’s ‘rasmalai’ jibe into a talking point of the campaign. 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.