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

After the municipal corporation election results, following the resounding victory of the ShivSena (Shinde faction) in the Thane Municipal Corporation, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is seen with party workers at Anand Ashram in Tembhi Naka in Thane. (Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)

Maharashtra election result 2026 highlights: The BJP-led Mahayuti swept 25 municipal corporations, including cash-rich BMC, while Owaisi's AIMIM also made massive gains. As AIMIM won 125 seats, Owaisi said the parties that lost the polls should introspect. Across Maharashtra, the BJP won 1,425 of the 2,869 seats spread over 29 municipal corporations. The Shiv Sena won 399 seats, the Congress 324, the NCP 167, the Shiv Sena (UBT) 155, the NCP (SP) 36, the MNS 13, the BSP six, parties registered with the SEC 129, unrecognised parties 196, and 19 were taken by independents.

Meanwhile, two important political reunions, the Thackerays and the Pawars, flopped in Maharashtra despite ending their differences for now.

In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have broken the nearly three-decade dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena of the Thackerays.

The BJP also triumphed in Pune, where it made mincemeat of the alliance of NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, thus, is set to come to power in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations, Chief Minister Fadnavis said, addressing jubilant party workers in south Mumbai in the evening.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the voters over the emphatic victory “The dynamic people of the state bless the NDA’s agenda of pro-people good governance,” Modi posted on X.

What to know on election results so far:

• Data released by the State Election Commission showed that the BJP won 89 seats after receiving 11,79,273 votes, which is 21.58 per cent of the total ballots cast. Among all winning candidates, the party’s vote share is listed at 45.22 per cent, placing it as the largest group in the civic body.
• BJP's ally, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), won 29 seats and polled 2,73,326 votes, equal to 5 per cent of the overall share.
• Counting of votes for elections for all the municipal corporations, including the BMC, began at 10 am. There were some delays and halts over malfunctions in EVMs or other issues, but nothing major, said officials.
• The 29 municipal corporations have 2,869 seats. The polling saw a 54.77 per cent turnout. Several exit polls favoured the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance to win most of the seats in the BMC, which is the richest municipality in India with a budget that's more than that of some states.
• Coupled with a decent performance by deputy CM Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, the BJP is now in the driver's seat to govern the cash-rich Mumbai civic body.
• The high-stakes battle for BMC saw the Thackeray cousins, Uddhav and Raj, reunite after two decades. They could not win, but did not lose badly.
• In Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation polls, the BJP is heading towards a massive victory, way ahead of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NCP (SP) alliance of the Sharad Pawar clan.
• CM Devendra Fadnavis has emerged as the man of the moment. The success of BJP's ‘Mission Mumbai' has now firmly established the party as the key political force in the financial capital. For years, the BMC was considered the invincible fortress of the Bal Thackeray family-led Sena.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hailed the BJP and Shiv Sena for their success in the Maharashtra civic polls and said that the outcome reflected their “pro-people good governance” approach.
• Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane said the BJP and Shiv Sena's strong showing in the BMC polls amounted to a clear mandate for its Hindutva pitch during the campaign. Fadnavis said, “Hindutva has always been our soul; one cannot differentiate our Hindutva from development."
• Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was elected a corporator in Jalna, winning as an independent candidate.
• The Congress, which contested the polls in alliance with a small party, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, won Latur.
• Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) emerged as a dark horse in the civic polls, registering notable gains in Muslim-dominated wards across the state.