MumbaiNovember 6, 2025 08:28 AM IST
First published on: Nov 6, 2025 at 08:28 AM IST
A lot is at stake for the ruling Mahayuti as well as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra in the local body polls announced on Tuesday. To to be held on December 2, these are the first elections to these bodies in the state in almost a decade.
For the Mahayuti – comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar – the polls are the first since it secured a thumping majority in last year’s Assembly elections, and seen as an opportunity to “create leaders”.
“Workers, who are the backbone of any political party, aspire to grow. Local body elections present a platform for them. Also, the lack of elections for several years has affected the process of creating new leaders,” a senior BJP leader said.
MVA constituents like the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) see a chance to showcase their strengths, and have dubbed the elections a “referendum” on the tall claims of development made by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government.
While the Mahayuti is hoping that semi-urban and semi-rural areas, which vote in the first phase, will lean towards it because of a spree of development projects, a Congress leader said that it is agriculture that is still predominant in the region that will be a decisive factor. “The elections will be a mandate on the government’s claim of bringing development to the state,” the leader said.
There is no clarity on whether the parties will contest the polls as allies or go their separate ways, with grassroots workers pressuring their leaderships to fight alone. The exception may be elections to the prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which are yet to be announced.
As per the State Election Commission (SEC) announcement Tuesday, the first phase of the local body polls will involve 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats. They will vote on December 2, with results to be announced a day later.
An NCP(SP) leader said the first phase is crucial as it involves almost 10% of the state’s population. “As the results of phase 1 will be out before the next phase, they may impact the results of the following phases as well,” the leader added.
Earlier, the Supreme Court finally put to rest the prolonged battle over the issue of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) for these polls, observing that “the Constitutional mandate of democracy at the grassroots-level and its enforcement through periodical elections of the local bodies ought to be respected and ensured”.
Elections are due in 29 municipal corporations, 247 municipal councils, 42 of the 147 nagar panchayats, 32 of 34 zilla parishads and 336 of 351 panchayat samitis across the state. The last local body polls were held in 2016-2017.