From Mumbai to Pune, Saffron Surge Redraws Civic Power Map of Maharashtra

Sweeping victories in Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Jalgaon and several other urban centres underline the BJP’s growing dominance across Maharashtra’s civic landscape.

BMC (MUMBAI) | PARTY-WISE POSITION (227 WARDS)

Status: Mahayuti crosses the majority mark; BJP emerges as the single-largest party in the BMC.

MAJOR URBAN CITIES | PARTY-WISE TRENDS

Key Takeaways

• BJP-led Mahayuti dominates Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and most urban centres
• Nagpur delivers a clear BJP majority, consolidating the party’s Vidarbha stronghold
• Thane remains a Shinde Sena bastion, though BJP stays competitive
• Congress retains pockets of influence in western Maharashtra and minority-dominated cities
• Overall urban trends indicate a decisive shift towards the BJP-led alliance

BY PC Bureau

January 16, 2026: The BJP–Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) alliance has surged past the majority mark in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), consolidating its position in India’s richest civic body as vote counting progressed on Friday. Of the 227 wards, the BJP is leading in 88, while its ally, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, is ahead in 28, taking the Mahayuti alliance to 116 seats—comfortably above the halfway mark of 114.

While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was undoubtedly the chief architect of the party’s stupendous performance, significant credit also goes to Mumbai BJP chief  Ameet Setam, along with his predecessor senior minister Ashish Shelar, who spent years consolidating and strengthening the party’s organisational base in Mumbai.

The Mahayuti also registered sweeping victories across several municipal corporations in Maharashtra as counting progressed in the civic polls held for 29 urban bodies. The alliance notched up decisive wins in Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Dhule, Panvel, Jalgaon, Sangli–Miraj–Kupwad and Jalna, consolidating its dominance in key urban centres.

READ: Maharashtra Civic Poll Results: Mahayuti All the Way

In Navi Mumbai, the Mahayuti secured a landslide mandate, with the BJP winning 65 seats and the Shiv Sena 43 of the total 111 seats. Ulhasnagar also saw a strong showing by the alliance, where the BJP won 37 seats and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena secured 36 of the 78 seats.

The BJP emerged as the principal force in Panvel and Dhule, securing clear majorities for the Mahayuti on its own. In Panvel, the BJP won 55 of the 78 seats, while the Shiv Sena added two. In Dhule, the BJP claimed 50 of the 74 seats, with the Sena winning five.

The saffron alliance continued its winning streak in Jalgaon, where the BJP secured 46 seats and the Shiv Sena won 22 of the 75 seats. In Sangli–Miraj–Kupwad, the BJP crossed the majority mark independently by winning 39 of the 78 seats. The Congress emerged as the second-largest party there with 18 seats, followed by the NCP with 16, while the Shiv Sena won two seats.

Jalna witnessed a near-sweep by the Mahayuti, which captured 53 of the 65 seats, leaving the Congress with just nine. However, the picture was mixed in Bhiwandi–Nizampur, where no party or alliance crossed the majority mark of 45. The Congress emerged ahead with 32 seats, followed by the BJP with 22, the Shiv Sena with 12, and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) with 12.

In Malegaon, the Shiv Sena emerged as the single largest party with 18 seats, though no major party secured a clear majority. Meanwhile, in Ahilyanagar, Ajit Pawar’s NCP led the tally with 27 seats, followed by the BJP with 25, the Shiv Sena with 10, the Congress with two, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) with one seat.

The BJP’s commanding performance in Mumbai underscores a major shift in the city’s political landscape and highlights the difficulty faced by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in retaining the Shiv Sena’s traditional urban base. Despite most of the undivided Shiv Sena’s 84 corporators from the 2017 elections joining his faction after the party split, Shinde’s Sena has struggled to expand beyond the 30-seat range.

Reacting to the trends, Shinde described the outcome as a mandate for “development” and a rejection of “corruption,” asserting that the BMC verdict reflected public confidence in the Mahayuti government’s performance over the past three-and-a-half years. When asked whether the next mayor would be from the BJP or the Shiv Sena, he avoided a direct answer, saying only that the mayor would belong to the Mahayuti.

On the opposition side, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) is winning or leading in at least 65 wards, while Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is ahead in six, giving the Thackeray cousins a combined tally of 71. While this marks a decline from the 84 seats the undivided Shiv Sena secured in 2017, the performance suggests that the Thackeray-led faction has retained a significant presence in Mumbai despite losing its party symbol and a section of its organisational base.

Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane said the alliance’s strong showing amounted to a clear endorsement of its campaign plank. In a social media post reacting to the early results, Rane said that those who speak for Hindu interests would rule Maharashtra, adding “Jai Shri Ram,” as the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance crossed the majority mark in the high-stakes BMC contest.

The BJP’s dominance is not limited to Mumbai. Across 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, early trends indicate a decisive advantage for the ruling alliance. The BJP is leading in 1,421 wards statewide, while Shinde’s Shiv Sena is ahead in 365. The Congress is placed third with leads in 317 wards, followed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) with 162 and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party with 159.

Pune, another key battleground, has also tilted in the BJP’s favour. Despite the two rival NCP factions led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar coming together for the civic polls, the BJP is leading in 123 of the city’s 165 seats, with the united NCP alliance trailing far behind.

Polling for 2,869 seats across 893 wards in the 29 civic bodies recorded a voter turnout of 52.94 percent. More than 15,900 candidates were in the fray statewide, including around 1,700 in Mumbai alone.

Besides Mumbai and Pune, counting is underway in several major municipal corporations, including Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Nagpur, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Malegaon, Kolhapur, Solapur, Akola, Amravati, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Latur, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.

As counting continues, the emerging trends point to a sweeping urban mandate for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, potentially reshaping Maharashtra’s civic governance and political equations in the run-up to future state and national elections.