Hours after the Supreme Court directed the Maharashtra government to notify local body elections within four weeks and try completing the process within four months, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis welcomed the decision and claimed to be ready for the polls.

The CM even maintained that the forthcoming polls would be contested jointly by members of the Mahayuti alliance, which comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena faction headed by Eknath Shinde.