The ruling Mahayuti alliance has once again asserted its dominance in Maharashtra’s local body elections, securing a decisive victory in the Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat polls, the results of which were declared on Sunday.
As counting began for elections held in two phases on December 2 and December 20 across 242 municipal councils and 46 nagar panchayats, trends clearly favoured the Mahayuti, which comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
According to final figures released by the State Election Commission late Sunday night, the alliance won 207 of the 288 posts of presidents in municipal councils and nagar panchayats. In contrast, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was restricted to a combined tally of 44 posts.
Among the Mahayuti partners, the BJP emerged as the single largest winner with 117 municipal presidents, followed by the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) with 53 and the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) with 37. On the opposition side, the Congress won 28 posts, the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) secured seven, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) managed nine. Five posts were won by Independents, four by parties registered with the SEC, and 28 by unrecognised registered parties.
Reacting to the results, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said opposition leaders were aware that defeat was inevitable. “They either stayed away from the contest or did not fight seriously. If they openly admit defeat, it will demoralise their workers ahead of the municipal corporation and district council elections. Now they can claim they didn’t contest or didn’t take these elections seriously,” he said.
Fadnavis also underlined the BJP’s consistent performance in urban and rural Maharashtra since 2014. “In every election after 2014, the BJP has performed well in cities and villages. Our Lok Sabha performance in 2024 dipped slightly, but our vote share did not fall. In fact, we received strong support in rural areas. The BJP represents all castes and communities and remains Maharashtra’s number one party,” he said.
Calling local body polls the backbone of party organisation, Fadnavis stressed that the BJP does not abandon its grassroots workers. “These elections belong to party workers. Ignoring them is arrogance. Whether we win or lose, we stand firmly with our workers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut launched a sharp attack on the ruling alliance, alleging that the results mirrored Assembly election figures due to the misuse of money and machinery. “The numbers are exactly the same as the Assembly results, the same machine, the same setting, the same money,” Raut claimed, suggesting that the scale of spending had overwhelmed the opposition.
Raut further alleged that exorbitant sums were spent on municipal elections. “For municipalities with budgets of Rs 30 crore, the BJP and the Shinde faction spend Rs 100–150 crore to win. This kind of money power has never been seen in local body elections. The contest was not against the opposition but among the ruling parties themselves,” he said, adding that voters were being conditioned to accept money in exchange for votes.
