The Maharashtra Election Commission is likely to announce dates for the upcoming BMC polls, civic body elections at 4 pm on Tuesday, November 4. The press conference will be held in Mumbai by State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare.
According to reports, municipal and municipal council elections are likely to be held in the first phase, followed by gram panchayat and other local polls. The local body elections were delayed in the state due to issues pending for many years such as ward structure and reservation for other backward classes. Finally, the elections for 246 municipalities and 42 nagar panchayats in the first phase will likely to be announced today.
Polls to Municipal Corporations, Nagar Panchayats, Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samiti will be held in three phases, as per media reports. In the first phase, the schedule for the elections to Municipal Corporations and Nagar Panchayats, in the second phase, Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samiti, and in the third phase, the schedule for the elections to Municipal Corporations will be announced.
The development comes at a time when the Congress-led opposition demanded that polls be postponed after alleging that the voter list of July 1 was being used for the elections and was full of irregularities, including duplicate and bogus names. Maha Vikas Aghadi, including MNS, protested over alleged irregularities in elections.
Also Read | SIR of electoral rolls begins across 12 states, UTs today.
Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is part of the Mahayuti government headed by the BJP. He said elections to Zilla Parishads are likely to be held on December 15, while the municipal corporation may go to polls on January 15.
Walse Patil said the Supreme Court had fixed January 31, 2026, as the final deadline for holding the long-pending local body elections. "As per my information, the Zilla Parishad elections could be held on December 15, and the civic polls on January 15. The entire process of local body and civic elections will be completed before January 31," Walse Patil said in a viral video.
"Across India there are talks about duplicate or bogus voting and vote chori. In Maharashtra’s assembly polls, about 4.6 million people reportedly after 5 PM and when we asked the Election Commission for CCTV footage, they refused, saying it would violate women’s privacy," said Shiv Sena UBT MP Arvind Sawant.