16 January,2026 01:49 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Pic/Satej Shinde
Counting of votes for more than 200 wards of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) began at 10 am on Friday. The elections for India's richest civic body were held after a gap of eight years, with Mumbai set to elect 227 corporators, who will go on to choose the city's new mayor.
In the 2017 BMC elections, the undivided Shiv Sena emerged as the single largest party by winning 84 seats out of 227. At that time, it was in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which secured 82 seats, taking the alliance past the halfway mark of 114 seats.
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The undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had won nine seats, while the Congress secured 31 seats in the 2017 polls.
According to data released by the State Election Commissioner (SEC) on Friday, the recently concluded BMC elections recorded a voter turnout of 52.94 per cent.
The elections were marred by allegations raised by the Shiv Sena (UBT)-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) alliance, which were subsequently refuted by the SEC.
The previous BMC elections were held in 2017, while the term of the last elected mayor, Kishori Pednekar, ended in March 2022. With the completion of polling, Mumbai is set to get a new mayor after nearly four years.
As per official data, the highest voter turnout was recorded in Ward 114 at 65.53 per cent, while the lowest turnout was reported in Ward 227 at 20.88 per cent.
Out of a total of 1,03,44,315 voters on the electoral roll, 54,76,043 exercised their franchise. In terms of voter participation, approximately 3.7 lakh more men voted compared to women. A total of 29,23,433 men, 25,52,359 women, and 251 transgender voters cast their votes across the 227 wards.
Exit polls have predicted a victory for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, with the Thackeray brothers' alliance finishing second, while the Congress and its allies are projected to trail.
According to Axis My India's predictions, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is likely to win between 131 and 151 seats, while the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS-NCP (SP) alliance may secure 58-68 seats. The Congress-VBA-RSP alliance is projected to win 12-16 seats, while others may bag 6-12 seats.
The BMC elections were held for 227 seats, and an alliance or party requires 114 seats to secure a simple majority. Axis My India also released vote-share projections, forecasting a combined 42 per cent vote share for the Mahayuti allies.
Meanwhile, DV Research projected that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance could win between 107 and 122 seats, the Thackeray brothers' alliance 68-83 seats, the Congress-led alliance 18-25 seats, and others 8-15 seats.
