Mumbai, Dec 16: The long-delayed elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and 28 other municipal corporations in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on January 15 2026 with counting of votes scheduled for January 16 the State Election Commission (SEC) announced on Monday.
State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said the polls will cover 2,869 seats with around 3.48 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise across the state. The announcement comes in compliance with a Supreme Court directive mandating that local body elections be conducted before January 31.
The nomination process will begin on December 23 and conclude on December 30. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until January 2 while the final list of contestants will be published on January 3.
“The final list of candidates will be published on January 3” Waghmare said.
The civic polls particularly the high stakes BMC election were overdue after the tenure of several municipal bodies expired years ago. While five civic bodies completed their term nearly five years ago, as many as 18—including the BMC finished their tenure in 2022 followed by four more in 2023.
The SEC’s decision to go ahead with the elections came despite opposition demands for postponement over alleged discrepancies in the voters’ list. The Commission clarified that it would use the Election Commission of India’s electoral roll dated July 1, 2025.
“The ECI’s electoral roll of July 1, 2025, will be used, and the SEC has no rights to add names to the list” Waghmare said adding that duplicate entries would be marked with a double star.
Addressing concerns over duplication, the SEC said around 15 lakh duplicate entries were identified across Maharashtra. In Mumbai alone only 7 per cent of the 11.5 lakh suspected duplicate entries were found to be genuine after field verification.
“Only 7% of the total 11.5 lakh duplicate entries are the actual ones” Waghmare said.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis welcomed the announcement, rejecting calls to delay the polls.
“We have also identified the discrepancies in the voter list, but that doesn’t mean that elections should be put on hold” he said, urging the Election Commission to conduct the polls on schedule.
However, Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat criticised the SEC’s decision, stating that accepting a flawed voters’ list undermines democratic norms.
“Accepting the ECI’s problematic voter list is not a sign of a healthy democracy” Thorat said.
With the announcement of the election schedule the Model Code of Conduct has come into force across all 29 municipal corporations barring new announcements that could influence voters. Just ahead of the code’s enforcement a flurry of project inaugurations and announcements were made including Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s declaration of a central park and an underground sports complex for Mumbai. The BMC also cleared two major contracts worth Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 4,800 crore.
The BMC polls are being closely watched as the next major political contest in the state following the BJP led Mahayuti alliance’s sweeping victory in the recent assembly elections.
