The BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) alliance was headed for a comfortable victory in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, exit polls indicated on Thursday, suggesting that the much-publicised reunion of estranged Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj had failed to sway the electorate.
The Thackeray cousins, who joined hands nearly two decades after their acrimonious split, had fought the civic polls on a strong “Maratha pride” plank, pitching the contest as one between the “Marathi Manoos and outsiders”. While the exit poll trends suggested that the alliance may have succeeded in consolidating a sizeable section of Marathi voters, the support appeared insufficient to give them a decisive edge.
Polling for the BMC, the country’s richest civic body, and 28 other municipal corporations across Maharashtra was held on Thursday, with counting scheduled for Friday.
Exit polls conducted by Axis My India, JVC and the Sakal newspaper group projected the BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena to comfortably cross the majority mark in the 227-member BMC. Axis My India forecast that the ruling combine would win between 131 and 151 councillor seats, while the JVC exit poll projected 138 seats. The Sakal group put the alliance’s tally at 119 seats.
In contrast, the combine of the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena and the Raj-helmed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena was projected to secure only 56 to 68 seats. According to the exit poll estimates, the combine was likely to garner around 32 per cent votes, compared with 42 per cent for the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) alliance.
The Congress, a constituent of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, contested the BMC elections independently and was projected to win between 12 and 16 seats with a vote share of about 13 per cent. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP, part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, also fought the civic polls separately.
Elections to the BMC and other municipal corporations had been pending since 2022. The undivided Shiv Sena had long dominated the cash-rich BMC. In the 2017 elections, the BJP and the then-united Shiv Sena had contested as allies, with the Sena emerging as the single largest party with 84 seats, closely followed by the BJP with 82 in the 227-member House.
If the exit poll projections are borne out when results are declared on Friday, the BJP could secure the mayor’s post in the BMC for the first time. As the senior partner in the alliance with the Shiv Sena and having contested the lion’s share of seats (137 to the Sena's 90), the BJP would be the foremost contender for the mayor’s post if the combine emerges victorious.
Voting for the high-stakes civic body was held on Thursday amid allegations of electoral malpractice levelled by the alliance of the Thackeray cousins. Uddhav and Raj alleged that at several polling booths, voters were being inked with ordinary markers instead of indelible ink, and claimed a collusion between the state election commission and the Mahayuti.
“People are coming out after casting their vote, wiping the ink and going back to vote again. Is this what the government calls development?” Raj told reporters.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rejected the allegations, while the state election commission issued a clarification asserting that adequate safeguards were in place. In an official statement, the commission said that erasing ink from a voter’s finger and attempting to vote again constituted an electoral offence and assured of action in such cases. It maintained that it was not possible for a voter to cast a second vote by merely wiping off the ink.
Exit poll projections for the equally high-stakes civic elections in the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations were not available. In these contests, the rival factions of the NCP led by members of the Pawar family had joined forces to challenge the BJP’s dominance, mirroring the Thackeray cousins’ experiment in Mumbai.
NCP (Sharad Pawar) working president Supriya Sule also alleged widespread irregularities during polling. “As the election process for municipal corporations in the state concludes today, the news emerging from the media is extremely shocking and concerning. Serious malfunctions regarding EVMs are coming to light. In many locations, people are being made to wipe off the ink on their fingers after voting; this raises a grave question — could this be for bogus voting?” she told reporters.