Maharashtra elections result 2026 Today

Maharashtra Municipal Elections, BMC Election 2026 Vote Counting Live Updates: Vote counting is underway in Maharashtra, where nearly 50 percent of voters exercised their franchise across 29 municipal corporations on Thursday. All eyes are on Mumbai, where the Thackeray brothers have reunited to reclaim their legacy and are contesting against the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. Exit polls conducted by Axis My India, JVC, and Sakal have predicted a massive victory for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Mumbai.

Maharashtra Election Results 2026 Live Updates: Vote counting has begun for the crucial elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Mumbai. The State Election Commission will declare the Maharashtra election results today, a day after polling was held on January 15 for 2,869 seats across 893 wards in the state. Some of the key municipal corporations to watch out for are Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kalyan-Dombivli, Mira-Bhayandar, Ulhasnagar, and Navi Mumbai. This election has garnered particular attention due to shifting political alliances, with former allies splitting and rivals joining hands for the polls. The once-feuding Thackeray cousins, Raj and Uddhav, who ended their animosity last June, have united for the Maharashtra municipal elections. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is also contesting in alliance with Sharad Pawar's NCP faction in two seats—Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Here is a brief overview of what happened on polling day:

The voting was conducted by 29 civic bodies : The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of Mumbai was one of the major municipal corporations in the competition. Besides this, the other civic bodies included Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.

Kolhapur records highest voter turnout, 41 percent in BMC : Voting began at 7:30 am on Thursday and continued until 5:30 pm. While official figures for the final voter turnout are yet to be released, State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare stated that the polling percentage in the 29 municipalities was between 46 and 50 percent. As of 3:30 pm, the highest voter turnout was recorded in Kolhapur at 50.85 percent, followed by other areas including Parbhani, Thane, Vasai-Virar, and Panvel.

Allegations of using erasable ink have surfaced : On Thursday, during the polling for elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, allegations of using marker pens or "erasable ink" surfaced. Voters claimed that they were able to wipe off the ink using hand sanitizer. News agency ANI quoted Uddhav Thackeray as saying, “This is probably the first election where so many complaints are coming in that the ink applied is coming off immediately. There is collusion between the Election Commission and the ruling party. Many irregularities are taking place.”

What did the exit polls predict? Several exit polls predicted that the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance would win the majority of seats in the BMC elections. According to Axis My India, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was projected to win 131-151 seats, the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS-NCP (SP) alliance 58-68 seats, the Congress-VBA-RSP alliance 12-16 seats, and others 6-12 seats. JVC gave a similar prediction, estimating that the BJP-led alliance would win at least 138 seats.