Under the Local Body Elections 2025 in Maharashtra, the process of voting for the posts of President and members in 23 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats of the state started on Saturday (December 20). Along with this, votes are also being cast for 143 vacant member posts in these local bodies. Voting began at 7:30 am and will continue till 5:30 pm.
According to the State Election Commission, counting of votes for all phases of voting will be done on December 21. The Commission has clarified that the counting of votes will start at 10 am at all the respective centres. This will also include those Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats, where voting was held in the first phase on December 2.
In the first phase of local body elections, elections were held in 263 municipal councils and nagar panchayats across the state. At many places the Chairman and members were elected unopposed, due to which the election process was completed without voting in some areas. However, in the current phase, direct competition is being seen on many seats.
This election round is seeing a direct contest between the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA). The grand alliance includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. At the same time, the opposition MVA alliance is also strongly in the electoral fray in many municipal bodies.
Further complicating the electoral picture, in some places allies of the ruling Mahayuti are also contesting against each other. So-called friendly fights are being seen on many seats between BJP, Shinde faction’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP. Due to this, the competition is not limited only to the ruling party versus the opposition, but has also taken the form of competition within the alliance.
Local body elections are being considered important from the point of view of state politics, as they are being seen as the first major political reaction of the public after the 2024 assembly elections. The direction of the state’s politics and the grassroots strength of the parties will be assessed in the coming times from the mandate received at the Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat level.
Now everyone’s eyes are fixed on December 21, when after the counting of votes it will become clear which alliance got the public trust in the local politics of Maharashtra and in which areas the equations have changed.
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