Maharashtra local body elections: Voting underway for 264 councils
What's the story
Voting for the first phase of Maharashtra's local body elections is currently underway. The elections are being held across 264 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats. A total of 6,042 seats are up for grabs. Nearly one crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in this phase, which started at 7:30am and will end at 5:30pm. The vote counting will take place on Wednesday.
Election timeline
Supreme Court mandates completion of local body elections
The elections are being held in phases as per a Supreme Court order mandating the completion of all pending local body elections by January 31, 2026. The court's directive aims to ensure that "elected representatives, rather than bureaucrats, run grassroots democratic institutions." The schedules for other major local bodies, including 29 Municipal Corporations, 32 Zilla Parishads, and 336 Panchayat Samitis, are yet to be announced.
Political landscape
Mahayuti and MVA alliances contest in Maharashtra elections
The main contest in these elections is between the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The Mahayuti alliance comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) (Ajit Pawar faction). The MVA consists of Indian National Congress (INC), Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray, NCP led by Sharad Pawar, among other parties.
Election security
Security measures and voting technology in place
To ensure peaceful polling, elaborate security arrangements have been made. The State Election Commission (SEC) has set up 12,316 polling stations and deployed 62,108 polling personnel. They have also arranged an adequate number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The SEC has also introduced a system to mark suspected duplicate voters with "double stars" on lists, requiring strict identity checks at polling stations. Additionally, the SEC launched a mobile application to provide voters with information about candidates and their submitted affidavits.