AS MAHARASHTRA heads to the elections on Thursday for 29 Municipal Corporations, the spotlight is on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti is locked in a battle with the united Thackeray front for control of the cash-rich BMC. Polling for the 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards will begin at 7.30 am and conclude at 5.30 pm on January 15. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates, including 1,700 in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune. Counting of votes will take place on January 16. More than 25,000 police personnel, including senior officers, will be deployed across Mumbai to oversee elections to the BMC and vote counting. Except for Mumbai, the other 28 urban bodies have multi-member wards. In a political turn ahead of the elections, estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunited after two decades in their bid to consolidate Marathi votes, even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. In this election, the Opposition Congress has asserted its presence in Mumbai by stepping out of the shadow of its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies - Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP).

 

The Congress has joined hands with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh in the state capital, even as it contests independently in Nagpur. Elections to 29 Municipal Corporations are being held after a gap of over six years, with their terms having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India. The battlegrounds include Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji. Chief Minister Fadnavis, along with his deputies Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, campaigned extensively across Maharashtra, while cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray concentrated their efforts on Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, where Uddhav held a rally.

 

Telangana minister Mohammad Azharuddin, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Tamil Nadu BJP leader K Annamalai were also among the star campaigners for the polls. Populist promises for women were the highlight of the manifestos of both the Mahayuti and the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS. The Mahayuti has promised a 50 per cent concession for women in BEST bus travel, while the Thackeray cousins have assured a Rs 1,500 monthly allowance for women domestic helps and a property tax waiver on houses up to 700 sq ft.

 

The Congress manifesto, by contrast, prioritises combating Mumbai’s pollution, upgrading the BEST fleet, and strengthening the city’s financial health. The race for Mumbai’s mayoral post took centre stage in the campaign, with the BJP claiming that a Sena (UBT) victory could lead to a Muslim mayor, a charge the Uddhav Thackeray-led party countered by assuring voters of a Marathi mayor. CM Fadnavis also guaranteed that the Mayor will be a “Hindu and Marathi”. In the 227-ward Mumbai, the BJP is contesting 137 seats, the Shiv Sena 90, while the NCP is fighting separately on 94 seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded 163 candidates, the MNS 52, the Congress 143 and the VBA 46. The Congress has fielded 1,263 candidates across the rest of the State.