Maharashtra civic body polls: Mahayuti, MVA to faceoff again in intense battle on Dec 2; here's all you need to know

The nagar parishads and panchayats in and around Mumbai that will go to polls in the first phase include Uran, Roha, Karjat, Alibag, Pen, Ambernath, Matheran, Dahanu, Palghar, and Chiplun.

Terms of many civic bodies have expired for over 3 years but polls were delayed due to Covid and then court cases on OBC quota and number of wards. This will be the first major statewide election after the assembly polls last year.

Nearly one crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in round one of the multi-tierrural and urban local bodies elections, which as per the Supreme Court, are to be concluded by January 31.


Voting via EVMs will get underway at 7:30 am and conclude at 5:30 pm with counting set for December 3. As many as 6,042 seats and 264 posts of council presidents are up for grabs in the elections across different districts in the state, officials said.

The polls will mainly be a fight between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) with friendly contests among allies at some places.

Why are civil elections important?

The polls are being viewed as a major indicator of political sentiment in the state following the BJP-led Mahayuti's landslide victory in the November 2024 assembly elections when it secured 235 out of the 288 assembly seats.

The local body results will test if this momentum translates to grassroots governance or if Opposition consolidation can challenge the ruling coalition's dominance at the municipal level, political observers said.

The polls have already witnessed significant political manoeuvring, with the ruling Mahayuti alliance of BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party facing off against the Opposition MVA of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) and Congress.

While Opposition focused its campaign on their local leadership, stealing a march over other parties, the BJP secured 100 councillor and three municipal president positions unopposed.

The EC introduced a verification system marking suspected duplicate voters with double stars on lists, requiring strict identity checks at polling stations. It also launched a mobile application providing information about candidates and voters, including affidavits of candidates.These local body elections are being conducted under a Supreme Court directive to complete pending polls by January 31. The schedules for 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, 32 Zilla Parishads, and 336 panchayat samitis are yet to be announced.

Polls postponed for few local bodies

SEC has postponed elections in over 20 municipal councils and nagar panchayats over several issues, including candidates approaching courts for rejection of their nomination forms.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has expressed strong objections to the State Election Commission postponing the local body polls in a few civic bodies, voting for which was to take place on Tuesday. SEC announced on Sunday that these elections would be postponed to December 20. Incidentally, even some in the Opposition have seconded Fadnavis and slammed SEC.

"Cancelling the elections is an extremely wrong step by the EC. I don't know under which law the EC has done this. They have wrongly interpreted the law. According to several lawyers I spoke to, elections cannot be postponed like this just because some people have gone to court," Fadnavis said.
SEC found that returning officers had illegally allotted poll symbols to candidates whose appeals against nomination scrutiny were either pending, decided late or not heard at all by district courts. SEC said irregular handling of appeals, delayed rulings, missing written decisions, unheard matters and cases still before courts had compromised the integrity of the election process. It, therefore, declared all such symbol allotments as “illegal”.

In Vidarbha, the municipal councils of Yavatmal, Washim, Balapur, Deoli, Ghugus, Anjangaon Surji and Deulgaon Raja will not go to polls as scheduled. Along with this, 51 individual member-seat elections have also been put on hold. These include: Ramtek (1), Narkhed (2), Kondhali (2), Kamptee (3), Wardha (2), Pulgaon (2), Hinganghat (3), Wani (1), Digras (3), Pandharkawda (2), Gondia (3), Gadchandur (1), Mul (1), Ballarpur (1), Warora (1), Risod (2), Daryapur (1), Achalpur (2), Warud (1), Dharni (2), Gadchiroli (3), Armori (1), Khamgaon (4), Shegaon (2), Jalgaon Jamod (3), and Bhandara (2).In Akola district, all 25 seats of Balapur Municipal Council — including the president’s post — have been suspended due to a pending court case linked to the mayoral candidature.