High-octane campaign for polls to 29 Maharashtra municipal corporations concludes

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spearheaded the campaign for the ruling alliance across the state to canvas for Mahayuti candidates.

Shinde campaigned at 51 places, including 29 campaign rallies and 25 road shows.

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Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP, the third partner in the Mahayuti combine, focused primarily on bastions Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad during the campaign. The NCP saw its rival Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party -SP joining hands to take on the BJP in these areas.

The run-up to the elections saw the coming together of estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray after 20 years, in their attempts to consolidate Marathi votes.

Notably, this would be the first Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election for the Shiv Sena since the 2022 split, which saw party leader Eknath Shinde leaving with a majority of the legislators, the party name and symbol.

The Congress party has also projected a strong image in this election by deciding to contest the election with VBA, instead of MVA allies Sena UBT and NCP(SP) in Mumbai.

Elections to the 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of more than six years their tenure ended between 2020 and 2023.

Of these, nine are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), one of the most urbanised belt in the state.

The corporations include Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.

The election also witnessed star campaigners from all parties and outside the state campaigning, including Telangana Congress Minister Mohammad Azharuddin, Congress Rajya sabha MP Imran Pratapgarhi, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Tamil Nadu BJP leader K Annamalai, BJP MLA Maithili Thakur campaigned for respective parties for the polls.

Fadnavis, Shinde and Ajit Pawar campaigned for their candidates across the state, while the Thackeray cousins focused on Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

Populist promises for women were the highlight of the manifestos of both the Mahayuti and the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS.

The Mahayuti has promised a 50 per cent concession for women in BEST bus travel, while the Thackeray cousins have assured a Rs 1,500 monthly allowance for women domestic helps and a property tax waiver on houses up to 700 sq ft.

The Congress’s manifesto, on the other hand, has focused on tackling pollution in Mumbai, improving the BEST fleet and the city’s financial position.

The Mumbai mayor post dominated the campaign discourse, with the BJP alleging that the city would have a Muslim mayor if the Sena (UBT) is voted to power, while the Uddhav Thackeray-led party countered the claim with the assurance of a Marathi mayor.

CM Fadnavis also guaranteed that the mayor will be a “Hindu and Marathi”.