Polling for the high-profile Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections began at 7:30 am on Thursday, January 15, 2026, bringing to an end nearly four years without an elected civic body in Mumbai. Early morning queues were seen across the city’s 227 wards as voters turned up to cast their ballots for nearly 1,700 candidates contesting the polls. However, the voting exercise was affected by multiple technical and administrative shortcomings. Several voters complained of difficulties in downloading voter slips and locating their names at polling booths, despite being registered voters, leading to confusion and delays at several locations.
Many voters alleged that the Maharashtra State Election Commission’s website displayed “data not available,” leaving them stranded at help desks set up outside polling stations. Frustration soon spilled onto social media platform X, where users criticised the authorities for the system failure on a crucial voting day. NCP-SP national spokesperson Anish Gawande termed the situation chaotic, claiming voters were forced to search through printed electoral rolls due to the website outage. He also alleged booth mergers and name transfers, stating that members of the same family were assigned to different polling stations, sometimes located far apart.
Several other voters echoed similar concerns, saying they were turned away or delayed due to missing voter slips or confusion over booth allocation. Meanwhile, the state government declared a public holiday to encourage participation among Mumbai’s 1.03 crore eligible voters. Over 64,000 election personnel and more than 28,000 police staff were deployed, with over 10,000 polling stations set up citywide. Special arrangements, including women-managed pink booths and facilities for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, were made. Voting will continue until 5:30 pm, with counting scheduled on January 16.