Maharashtra Civic Body Polls 2026 Live: Exit Polls Predict Mahayuti Clean Sweep; Vote Counting On Jan 16

Maharashtra Civic Body Polls 2026 live Updates: The Maharashtra Civic Body Polls 2026 were held across 29 municipal corporations, with maximum focus on Mumbai, where voters elected a new Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Polling for 2,869 seats across 893 wards took place on January 15 from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. Around 34.8 million voters decided the political future of 15,931 candidates across the state, including 1,700 candidates in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune.
Around 50 per cent polling was recorded in Mumbai and 28 other municipal corporations in Maharashtra on Thursday, amid a major controversy over claims that the ink applied on voters' fingers could be easily removed.
Mumbai witnessed a high-stakes three-cornered contest between the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS combine, and the Congress-VBA front. The undivided Shiv Sena had controlled the BMC for 26 consecutive years, with the last election held in 2017, where the Shiv Sena won 84 seats and the BJP 82. The 2026 elections were marked by major political realignments, including the reunion of the Thackeray cousins and Ajit Pawar’s alliance with Sharad Pawar’s NCP in key civic bodies such as Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and Parbhani, traditional strongholds of the NCP.
As per SEC data, the voter turnout was 41.13 per cent till 3.30 pm across the state. As at 3:30pm, Kolhapur led with a voter turnout of 50.85 per cent. It was 41.08 per cent in Mumbai, 36.95 per cent in Pune, 41.23 per cent in Nagpur, 43.67 per cent in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and 39.64 percent in Nashik. Counting of votes will begin at 10am on Friday, including 25 places in Mumbai.