BJP wins three of four civic bodies in Vidarbha, loses Chandrapur to Cong

The BJP managed to retain the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and narrowly held on to power in Akola and Amravati with the support of its allies

NAGPUR: While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delivered a sweeping performance across most of Maharashtra’s 29 municipal corporations—including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune and Thane—it failed to demonstrate the same level of dominance in the Vidarbha region.

Nagpur, Jan 16 (ANI): BJP workers celebrate their party's victory in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections, in Nagpur on Friday. (ANI Photo) (Ranjit Deshmukh)

Home turf of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, elections were held to four civic bodies here: Nagpur, Akola, Amravati and Chandrapur.

The BJP managed to retain the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and narrowly held on to power in Akola and Amravati with the support of its allies. However, it suffered a major setback in Chandrapur, where the Congress wrested control of the civic body from the saffron party.

In Nagpur, the BJP contested 143 of the 151 seats, while its ally, the Shiv Sena fielded candidates in eight wards. The Congress contested all 151 seats. The BJP secured 102 seats—six fewer than its 108-seat tally in the 2017 elections—while the Congress emerged as the principal opposition with 35 seats, marking a significant improvement from its 29 seats in the previous poll.

Widely regarded as a BJP stronghold, Nagpur is the political home ground of several senior BJP leaders, including chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and senior Maharashtra minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Given the party’s aggressive campaign, including extensive door-to-door outreach by BJP workers and RSS swayamsevaks, and the Congress’s relatively limited resources and subdued campaigning, it was widely expected that the BJP would cross the 120-seat mark this time.

Its ally, the Sena won only two seats while the NCP secured only one. The Shiv Sena (UBT) bagged two seats, while the AIMIM and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) made notable gains, winning four seats each.

Among the prominent BJP candidates who lost were Pragati Patil, president of the party’s city women’s wing, and Dharmapal Meshram, vice-chairperson of the Maharashtra State SC and ST Commission.

AIMIM’s winning candidates in Nagpur included Alisha Khan, Reshma Nandgawli, Sofia Sheikh and Pawan Koye. Alisha Khan, 29, wife of Fahim Khan—an accused in the March 2025 Nagpur riots who was later granted conditional bail—said her decision to enter politics was shaped by personal experience. “To raise your voice against injustice, political power is necessary. Without it, voices are crushed,” she said, pledging to work for the welfare of marginalised and underprivileged communities.

In the Akola Municipal Corporation, the BJP fell short of a majority, winning 38 of the 80 seats, down sharply from its 48-seat absolute majority in 2017. The Congress emerged runner-up with 21 seats, a gain of 10 compared to the last election. AIMIM won three seats. The BJP is expected to retain control with the support of allies.

The situation was similar in Amravati, where the BJP’s tally dropped dramatically to 25 seats from 45 in 2017. Its ally, the Yuva Swabhiman Party (YSP), won 16 seats, which would help the saffron party retain power in the civic body. The Congress secured 15. The NCP won 11 seats, AIMIM 11, Shiv Sena three and Sena (UBT) two.

In Chandrapur, the BJP suffered a major blow amid factional infighting between camps led by Sudhir Mungantiwar and Kishore Jorgewar. The party’s tally plunged to 23 seats from its 2017 majority of 36 in the 66-member corporation.

The Congress emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats and is set to take control of the civic body with the support of the Sena (UBT), which won six seats, and its other ally, Shetkari Kamgar Paksha, which secured three seats. Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar was credited with the party’s revival in the corporation after it had managed only 12 seats in 2017.

Overall, the 2026 civic elections also marked the rise of the AIMIM as a significant force in Vidarbha. Party chief Asaduddin Owaisi campaigned extensively across all four corporations, a strategy that paid dividends. AIMIM won 11 seats in Amravati, three in Akola, one in Chandrapur, and together with the IUML, secured eight seats in Nagpur.