Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday thanked voters for “giving a grand victory” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the saffron party and its ally, the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, inched closer to winning the Maharashtra civic bodies’ election. He claimed that ‘Maharashtra relies on PM Modi a lot’.
“We faced these elections with a vision of development under the leadership of PM Modi… That is why we got a record-breaking mandate in these elections… These results have clarified that Maharashtra relies a lot on PM Modi,” news agency ANI quoted Fadnavis as saying.
CM Fadnavis’ comments come as the BJP-led Mahayuti appears set for a sweeping victory in Maharashtra – with a commanding lead across most of the state’s 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai (BMC), Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kalyan-Dombivali, Nashik, Thane and Navi Mumbai.
Mahayuti to have ’25 mayors’
CM Fadnavis said that ‘BJP and Mahayuti are going to form their 25 mayors after the elections.
“First of all, I want to thank the citizens of Maharashtra for giving a grand victory to the BJP in the municipal elections. BJP and Mahayuti are going to form their 25 mayors after these elections,” said the Maharashtra CM.
BMC Election Results 2026
According to official results, the BJP has won 56 wards, while the Shiv Sena won 22 out of Mumbai’s 227 wards. The Shiv Sena (UBT) emerged victorious in 44 wards, according to the figures reported around 5 PM.
With counting still underway, television channels reported the BJP leading in 98 wards, with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena ahead in 26 wards.
The BMC elections were held after a four-year delay and are the first since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena. The undivided party had controlled India’s richest civic body for 25 years, from 1997 to 2022. The BMC has an annual budget exceeding ₹₹74,400 crore.
According to the State Election Commission, the overall voter turnout across civic bodies was estimated at 46–50%. Mumbai, which alone saw nearly 1,700 candidates in the fray, recorded about 50% polling—lower than the turnout in the 2017 BMC elections.
While Mumbai remains a key battleground, close contests are also being tracked in Pune, Nagpur and Nashik.
