Maharashtra election result highlights: Suspense builds over Mumbai Mayor's post; Shinde's corporators moved to hotel

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said, “The people have given an unprecedented mandate to the Bharatiya Janata Party and Mahayuti alliance."
Talking about the mandate, Fadnavis said that it reflects the public’s approval of the development agenda that his government is pursuing. "This is a demonstration of the people’s trust in the country’s Prime Minister, Hon’ble Narendra Modi, and I believe that this is certainly an unprecedented mandate,” he added.

Maharashtra local election results Live: The Maharashtra State Election Commission declared results for 2,784 of the 2,869 seats across 29 municipal corporations in the state, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party by winning 1,372 seats.

The results of the remaining 85 seats are expected to be announced later in the night.

As of Data released by the SEC showed that the BJP secured 1,372 seats, followed by Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena with 394 seats, Congress with 315 seats, Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 158 seats, and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) winning 149 seats.

In Mumbai, the BJP has won 88, Shiv Sena 29, Congress 19, Shiv Sena (UBT) 64 and MNS five. The BJP is leading in several seats, including Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Pimpri Chinchwad and Pune.

Maharashtra local election results Live: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday won 19 of the 29 civic wards in Maharashtra, while the Shiv Sena won 2 and Congress won 3.

In Navi Mumbai, as per the State Election Commission data, the BJP won 65 of the 111 seats. The Shiv Sena won 42, Shiv Sena (UBT) won two seats, while MNS won one ward, as of 9:25 pm.

In Jalgaon, the BJP won 46 of the 75 seats, Shiv Sena 22, NCP one and Shiv Sena (UBT) five.

In Sangli-Miraj- Kupwada, the BJP won 39 of the 78 seats, Congress won 18, NCP 16, Shiv Sena two and NCP (SP) three.

Maharashtra local election results Live: The BJP and Shiv Sena-led Mahayuti on Friday recorded sweeping victories in Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Dhule, Panvel, Jalgaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad and Jalna municipal corporations, out of the 29 municipal corporations undergoing vote counting in Maharashtra. In the Navi Mumbai civic body polls, the Yuti won by a thumping majority, with the BJP winning 65 seats and Shiv Sena winning 43 of the total 111 seats.

In Panvel and Dhule, the BJP got a majority for the Mahayuti single-handedly, winning 55 out of 78 seats and 50 out of 74 seats respectively, while the Sena won two and five seats respectively.

BJP blitz in Maharashtra civic polls: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Congress were decimated in the Thane civic polls, failing to win a single seat. Congress' Thane unit chief Vikrant Chavan lost as did MNS' city unit head Ravindra More. Incidentally, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had held a joint rally in Thane. Raj Thackeray had claimed in his address that his candidates were being offered "crores of rupees" by opponents to withdraw from the fray.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday won the municipal corporations of Navi Mumbai and Jalgaon while the Congress emerged as the single largest party in Bhiwandi and Kolhapur as the results of 11 of the 29 civic bodies were declared.

• In Navi Mumbai, as per the State Election Commission data, the BJP won 65 of the 111 seats. The Shiv Sena won 43, Shiv Sena (UBT) won two seats, while an independent candidate won in one ward, news agency PTI reported.
• In Jalgaon, the BJP won 46 of the 75 seats, Shiv Sena 22, NCP one, Shiv Sena (UBT) five, independent one.
• In Sangli-Miraj- Kupwada, the BJP won 39 of the 78 seats, Congress won 18, NCP 16, Shiv Sena two and NCP (SP) three.
• In Jalna, the BJP won 45 of the 65 seats, Congress nine, Shiv Sena 12 and others three.
• In Ulhasnagar in Thane district, the BJP won 37 of the 78 seats, while Shiv Sena wont 36 seats.
• In Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Congress won 30 and BJP 22 seats. Shiv Sena won 12 and NCP (SP) bagged 12 seats.
• In Panvel, BJP won 55 of the 78 seats, Congress four, Shiv Sena two, Shiv Sena (UBT) five and others 10.
• In Malegaon, AIMIM won 26 seats of the 84 seats, Shiv Sena 18, the BJP 2 while others won 35 seats.
• In Dhule, the BJP bagged 50 seats, NCP eight, Shiv Sena five and others parties won 11.
• In Ahilyanagar, the NCP won 27 of the 68 seats, BJP won 25, Congress two, BSP one, Shiv Sena 10, Shiv Sena (UBT) one and others won two seats.
• In Kolhapur, the Congress won 34 seats, BJP 26, Shiv Sena 15, NCP four, Shiv Sena (UBT) one and others won a single seat.

The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde looks set to win the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after its numbers briefly seemed to be going awry.

As of trends and wins as of 8:30 pm, the BJP is winning 87 seats in the BMC, and Shinde's 27 means it will hit the 114 mark of majority in a House of 227.

In a setback to gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, both his daughters lost in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections from their wards in south Mumbai on Friday, reported news agency PTI. Gawli's sister-in-law, Vandana Pradeep Gawli, who contested on a Shiv Sena ticket from ward 198, also lost.

His daughter Geeta, who was seeking a fourth term, and the younger Yogita, who was making her poll debut, lost respectively to the Samajwadi Party's Amrin Shezad Abrahani and BJP's Rohidas Lokhande.

For the first time, Gawli, a former MLA, popularly known as 'Daddy of Dagdi Chawl', also canvassed for his daughters and took out roadshows.

After spending over 17 years behind bars, the 76-year-old walked out of the Nagpur Central Prison recently after the Supreme Court granted him bail. He was serving life imprisonment for the 2007 murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar.

A sour insult turned into sweet victory for BJP candidates for whom the party's Tamil Nadu leader K Annamalai campaigned in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls. These candidates have swept their election wards, and their supporters have said it's a befitting reply to MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s “rasmalai” jibe against Annamalai.

BJP's Tejinder Singh Tiwana and Yogesh Varma won from wards 47 and 35, respectively, in Malad West, while Dakshata Kavthankar secured a win from ward 19 in Charkop, according to results released by the BMC.

Tiwana, the president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Mumbai unit, shared the organisation's social media post with a picture of actual 'rasmalai' saying, “Results win in Mumbai, noise doesn't. Thank you, Mumbai.”

The fight for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the prized possession among all of Maharashtra's, even India's, local bodies, suddenly appears to be narrow, as per wins and trends added up at 7:40pm.

Here's the scenario:

• For the BJP, numbers now show it has 84 seats on its own (won or leading), far short of the majority mark of 114 on its own in the 227-member House.
• Even adding the numbers of ally Shiv Sena of deputy CM Eknath Shinde, 26, takes the total to 110. Ajit Pawar's NCP, a state-level ally of the BJP and Shinde's Sena, has two seats, which also takes the total only to 112, short by two.
• The Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray is at 72, and ally MNS of Raj Thackeray is at 10, meaning the cousins together have 82. Thus, they look set to lose their hold over Mumbai, or at least its municipality. But add to that, the Congress's 23, and the total goes to 105, not too far from majority.

“The dynamic people of the state have blessed the NDA's agenda of pro-people good governance,” PM Narendra Modi said on the BJP-led alliance's wins in the Maharashtra civic body polls. He posted the message in Marathi on X.

It translated to: “Thank you, Maharashtra! The enthusiastic people of the state have blessed the NDA's agenda of public welfare and good governance! The results of various municipal corporation elections show that the bond between the NDA and the people of Maharashtra has become even stronger. The experience of our performance and the vision of development have touched the hearts of the people. I express heartfelt gratitude to all the people of Maharashtra. This mandate will give greater momentum to progress and is a celebration of the glorious culture connected with the state.”

The BJP and its state-level partner Shiv Sena have won or are leading on over 1,700 of 2,869 seats across the 29 municipal corporations of Maharashtra, as per trends reported by TV channels of 7 pm.

The BJP has 1,388 seats (won/leading), followed by Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena at 364. The Congress is third with 306 seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray has won or is leading on 166 seats.

Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's NCP has crossed 150, while AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi is at 94.

In Bhiwandi-Nizampur, all 90 seats' results have been declared, with the Congress emerging as the largest party but no one with clear majority:

• BJP: 22
• Shiv Sena: 12
• Congress: 30
• NCP-SP: 12
• Others/Independents: 14

In Ulhasnagar, the full result has been declared, and the state's ruling BJP and Shiv Sena have shared the spoils almost equally:

Results: 78/78

BJP: 38

Shiv Sena: 37

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi: 2

Congress: 1

For the Thane municipal corporation, results so far show the following tally, meaning a big win for the Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde (There was no alliance at the local level with the BJP.):

Total seats: 131, results so far: 94

Shiv Sena: 49

BJP: 19

NCP-SP: 11

NCP: 8

AIMIM: 5

SS-UBT: 1

Independent: 1

What happened in 2017?

The last civic polls in Thane took place in 2017. At that time, the united Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray and the BJP chose to fight separately, even though they were allies at the state level.

The united Shiv Sena won 67 of the 131 seats and thus had majority on its own. The then-undivided NCP won 34 seats, while the BJP finished in third place with 23.

Following the split in the Shiv Sena, the political equation in Thane changed. Out of the 67 corporators elected in 2017, 66 have since moved to the Eknath Shinde-led Sena.

CM Devendra Fadnavis termed the Maharashtra civic poll win for the BJP as a victory of the party's ideology. “Hindutva has always been our soul; one cannot differentiate our Hindutva from development,” he said, as per news agency PTI. The Shiv Sena (UBT) led by ally-turned-enemy Uddhav Thackeray has termed the BJP's Hindutva “fake”, while the BJP has accused the Thackerays of discarding the ideology. The party and its allies looked set to win power in 25 of the 29 corporations, including Mumbai's BMC, as per trends at 6:25pm reported by TV channels.

“The resounding victory of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the Maharashtra municipal corporation elections clearly shows that the people across every corner of the country have complete faith only in the development policies of the NDA led by PM Narendra Modi,” home minister Amit Shah posted on X.

“This historic success is the people's stamp of approval on the development and public welfare work carried out by the Mahayuti government in the state. Heartfelt gratitude to the people of Maharashtra for this immense support,” he added.

The BJP alone is leading on, or has already won, at least 1,318 of the 2,869 municipal seats across 29 corporations in Maharashtra, as per trends being reported by TV channels at 5:55 pm. That's nearly half of all seats, plus its state-level partners Shiv Sena and NCP, led by deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, have the numbers for the Mahayuti tally to cross 1,800. Though, there are places where alliances are not along state lines, and partners are fighting each other.

The Shiv Sena on its own is winning or leading on 364 seats.

The Congress is getting a relatively respectable number at 280, given that it went solo this time.

Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena is winning or leading only in 160 wards, losing even in its stronghold of Mumbai where the BJP-Shinde alliance is winning big.

The AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi has won or is leading in 86 wards, with Malegaon being a prominent success story for it, as per the trends.

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar thanked the people of Mumbai for reposing their faith in the BJP-led alliance or Mahayuti in the civic body elections, stating that the mandate reflects a “desire for development”.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance is leading well past the majority mark of 114 in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, according to the latest trends by the state poll panel.

"We have won the trust of Mumbai's people by dedicating to them important projects like the Metro Rail Network, Coastal Road, and Trans Harbour Link, and this mandate shows the desire of Mumbai's people for the city's development," Narwekar said.

Former union minister has expressed confidence that the BJP will rule for “next 20-25 years” after massive Mahayuti win in Maharashtra civic body polls.
"The success that Maha Yuti has got under the leadership of the BJP in Maharashtra municipal elections shows the trust that the public has in PM Modi... The BJP will rule for the next 20-25 years," Javadekar told the media.

Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora attacked Shiv Sena (UBT) after Mahayuti won the BMC and wider Maharashtra civic body polls.
"I would first like to thank all the voters of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region for giving the Mahayuti a historic victory. After 30 years, those who looted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and tried to divert public attention towards emotional issues during this election have been completely rejected by the people of Mumbai. Today, I can say with confidence that in Mumbai and across Maharashtra, there are only two 'Bhau' in Maharashtra - Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde," Deora told PTI

Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde credited PM Narendra Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis for BJP's win in the state's civic polls.
"PM has done a lot for development in the country as well as Maharashtra. Similarly, a lot has been done by CM Devendra Fadnavis and our alliance. This is a victory of that," Munde told the media.

The BJP has surged ahead of the NCP combine of deputy CM Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar, in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad corporations, according to trends and results of the Maharashtra civic elections so far, as per news agency PTI.

The BJP has won 29 electoral wards and is leading in 43 others in Pune, as per the data shared by the election department of the civic body.

The Nationalist Congress Party of AJit Pawar and the NCP (SP) are a distant second, winning three and two seats, respectively, so far, in the 165-member Pune civic body. Trends show the NCP is leading in seven wards, and the NCP (SP) in one ward.

In the 128-member Pimpri-Chinchwad civic body, the BJP is leading in 81 seats, while the NCP is ahead in 36. Despite being an ally of the BJP in the ruling Mahayuti, the NCP of Ajit Pawar contested the civic elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad in alliance with the NCP(SP), two years after the bitter break-up.

The Maharashtra civic body election results have turned out to be a big boost for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but there is some good news for the Congress as well. This is the first time the party decided to go solo since 1999 over shifting alliances and legacy factors.

The Congress failed to make much headway in Mumbai, but its performance overall had some remarkable moments. It did better than Thackeray cousins' alliance and the Pawars' reunion. While the BJP dominated Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Pune, Panvel, Kalyan-Dombivli and Nagpur among others, the Congress was in the lead in Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Kolhapur, Amravati, Chandrapur and Latur.

It fought only 528 seats of the total 2,869, and was leading on 226, as per trends at 4:30 pm according to TV reports.

Read here: Detailed report on how Cong has something to smile about

The BJP attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with a “khandani chor” ('family of thieves') barb, accusing him of misleading people and trying to discredit the Maharashtra civic poll process when the counting of votes was underway on Friday. This came in response to Gandhi asserting that "vote chori is an anti-national act" and accused the Election Commission of “gaslighting” citizens amid a row over the quality of the indelible ink used in marker pens during the polling held on Thursday for 29 corporations. Reacting to Gandhi's remarks, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, in a post on X, said, “Bahana (excuse) brigade back! Accepting defeat before counting ends?… 'Khandani chor' now regurgitating claims of Thackerays.”.