Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti alliance delivered a sweeping mandate in the local body elections on Friday, winning 23 of the state’s 29 municipal corporations that went to polls and wresting control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the first time. The verdict marks a watershed moment in state politics, ending a quarter-century of Thackeray dominance over Mumbai’s civic body and consolidating the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rise as the principal force in urban Maharashtra.
BJP party emerged as the single-largest party in Mumbai and in 22 other municipal corporations, decisively outpacing both the Opposition and its Mahayuti allies. With this, the BJP will control India’s richest civic body for the first time since the BMC’s inception.
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The result significantly boosts Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who led the campaign with a development-focused pitch in the absence of major national leaders. Thanking voters, Modi said on X that Maharashtra had “blessed the NDA’s agenda of pro-people good governance,” adding that the results showed the alliance’s bond with the people had “further deepened.”
Thackeray citadel falls in Mumbai
The BMC outcome was the most keenly watched. For the first time in 25 years, the Thackeray family lost control of Mumbai, a city that provided the Shiv Sena its political and financial backbone. Despite a rare reunion between Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj Thackeray and a sharp Marathi nativist pitch, the Opposition failed to stem the BJP’s surge.
Seat-wise, the BJP finished well ahead of rivals. Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, contesting 90 seats with the BJP, won 29. Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), which contested 163 seats, secured 65 – largely concentrated in south-central Mumbai from Dadar to Byculla.
The result leaves the question of Bal Thackeray’s legacy unresolved within Mumbai as Uddhav Thackeray confronts back-to-back electoral setbacks.
Also read – Uddhav Thackeray suffers major setback: What BMC results mean for him, and the road ahead
The Congress, despite being the single-largest party in Maharashtra in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, slid to its lowest-ever tally in the BMC, winning just 24 seats – down from 111 in 1992. Its pre-poll decision to part ways with Shiv Sena (UBT) and align with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) did not pay off; the VBA failed to open its account in Mumbai.
Maharashtra Civic Polls 2026 results
BMC (227)
BJP: 89
Shiv Sena (UBT): 65
Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde): 29
Congress: 24
MNS: 6
AIMIM: 8
NCP: 3
Samajwadi Party: 2
NCP (Sharad Pawar): 1
Other Key Municipal Corporations
Nagpur (151)
BJP: 102
Congress: 34
Shiv Sena: 1
Shiv Sena (UBT): 2
NCP: 1
NCP (SP): 0
MNS: 0
Congress: 15
Shiv Sena: 0
Shiv Sena (UBT): 1
NCP: 20
NCP (SP): 3
MNS: 0
Pimpri-Chinchwad (PCMC) (128)
BJP: 84
Congress: 0
Shiv Sena: 6
Shiv Sena (UBT): 0
NCP: 36
NCP (SP): 0
MNS: 0
Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (115)
BJP: 57
Congress: 1
Shiv Sena: 13
Shiv Sena (UBT): 6
NCP: 0
NCP (SP): 2
AIMIM: 33
MNS: 0
Congress: 43
Shiv Sena: 0
Shiv Sena (UBT): 0
NCP: 1
NCP (SP): 0
MNS: 0
Congress: 34
Shiv Sena: 15
Shiv Sena (UBT): 1
NCP: 4
NCP (SP): 0
MNS: 0
Congress: 3
Shiv Sena: 26
Shiv Sena (UBT): 15
NCP: 4
NCP (SP): 0
MNS: 1
Congress: 2
Shiv Sena: 4
Shiv Sena (UBT): 0
NCP: 1
NCP (SP): 0
MNS: 0
Statewide verdict: Opposition falters, BJP ascendant
Across Maharashtra, the Mahayuti’s dominance was stark: 23 corporations for the ruling alliance, just six for the Opposition.
The reunification of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) factions led by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar could not prevent losses in key bastions, including Pimpri-Chinchwad, which the BJP won comfortably. Poor showings in western Maharashtra have triggered renewed merger talk within the NCP ranks.
The Congress managed to retain only three corporations – Latur, Chandrapur and Bhiwandi Nizampur – down from four previously. Even the BJP’s ally, the NCP, which controversially contested two corporations outside the Mahayuti, failed to win a single civic body independently.
The results also underlined the BJP’s growing grip over the Mumbai–Nashik–Pune industrial belt, which contributes about 7% of India’s GDP, and over the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), home to more than a fifth of Maharashtra’s population. The Mahayuti led in Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Palghar, Navi Mumbai, Mira-Bhayandar and Ulhasnagar, while local strongman Hitendra Thakur’s Bahujan Vikas Aghadi won Vasai–Virar and the Congress prevailed in Bhiwandi.
Fadnavis described the mandate as an endorsement of the government’s development agenda and “inclusive Hindutva,” noting that voters had trusted the BJP’s vision of urban upgradation. With regional heavyweights weakened, his stature has risen both within the party and nationally.
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