BMC Polls: Mahayuti Surges Early as Thackeray Brothers Trail

Early trends from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections suggest a strong opening for the BJP–Shiv Sena Mahayuti alliance, with initial counting of postal ballots placing the ruling combine well ahead in Mumbai’s high-stakes civic battle.

Preliminary data indicates that the Mahayuti is leading in around 52 wards, with the BJP ahead in 35 seats and the Shiv Sena leading in 17. Official figures from the State Election Commission (SEC) and the BMC are still awaited, but early momentum appears firmly with the ruling alliance.

For the Thackeray brothers, the morning has brought limited cheer. Shiv Sena (UBT) is reported to be leading in 22 seats, while Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is ahead in eight. The Congress has managed leads in just four seats from the initial count, underlining its diminished footprint in the country’s richest civic body.

The elections, held after a gap of eight years, recorded a voter turnout of 52.94%, according to the SEC. Out of 1.03 crore registered voters, 54.76 lakh exercised their franchise. Men outnumbered women voters by around 3.7 lakh, with 29.23 lakh men, 25.52 lakh women, and 251 transgender voters casting ballots across 277 wards.

Beyond numbers, the election carried heavy political weight. The BMC polls—conducted for the first time since 2017—were marked by allegations from the Shiv Sena (UBT)–MNS alliance, which were later rejected by the SEC. With the term of the last elected mayor ending in March 2022, Mumbai is poised to get a new mayor after nearly four years of administrative vacuum.

Exit polls had already pointed to a Mahayuti edge, predicting the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance to finish on top, with the Thackeray-led parties trailing and the Congress struggling to make an impact.

The contrast with 2017 is stark. Back then, the undivided Shiv Sena had emerged as the single-largest party with 84 seats, while the BJP won 82, together crossing the majority mark of 114 in the 227-member House. The current early trends suggest a reshaped civic map—one where the Mahayuti looks set to consolidate its grip on Mumbai’s municipal power centre.

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