15 January,2026 08:46 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
(From left) Union Minister of State and RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale, CM Devendra Fadnavis, and DCM Eknath Shinde address a Mahayuti rally at Shivaji Park on Monday. Pic/Ashish Raje
>> Total BMC seats: 227
>> Majority mark: 114
Mahayuti alliance:
>> BJP: 137 seats
>> Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena: 90 seats
Opposition bloc:
>> Shiv Sena (UBT): 163 seats
>> Congress: 143 seats
>> MNS: 53 seats
>> Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP: 11 seats
For nearly two decades before 2017, the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP jointly ran Mumbai's civic body.
In the 2017 BMC elections, the allies split and fought separately.
>> Shiv Sena emerged as the single largest party with 84 seats
>> BJP followed closely with 82 seats
The fractured verdict led to political instability.
The last BMC polls were held in 2017.
The elected council's term ended in 2022, after which the civic body has remained under administrative rule.
The long-delayed 2026 BMC elections are being seen as one of Mumbai's most politically charged civic contests.
On one side is Devendra Fadnavis's Mahayuti alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its partners.
On the other is the combined force of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by the Thackeray cousins.
Fadnavis dismissed the Uddhav-Raj tie-up as an "alliance of corruption and confusion."
He said the BMC election was a battle for the political survival of the Thackeray cousins, not a fight for the Marathi people.
According to him, the polls were not about any threat to Mumbai or Marathi identity, but about leaders who had relied on linguistic pride while failing to deliver.
He added that no one can separate Mumbai from Maharashtra, and asserted that the city will have a Marathi Mahayuti mayor.
>> Mumbai population: 1.4 crore
>> Eligible voters: 1 crore
>> Non-Marathi residents: 50%
>> Mahayuti MLAs in Mumbai: 22
>> Total Mumbai MLAs: 36
>> Non-Marathi MLAs: 13
>> Non-Marathi BJP MLAs: 7
>> Non-Marathi corporators: 72 of 227
>> Half of them were elected on BJP tickets
Fadnavis highlighted large-scale redevelopment and infrastructure push, including:
>> Affordable housing for Marathi residents
>> Dharavi redevelopment and rehabilitation
>> Expansion of Mumbai's metro network to 437 km in five years
>> Integration of metro, suburban rail, roads, and BEST buses into one transport system
>> Improved waste management and air quality measures
