More than one crore eligible voters in Mumbai are set to determine the leadership of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the next five years, as elections to India’s wealthiest civic body are scheduled for next month. On Tuesday, the BMC released the final electoral rolls on its official website, confirming a total electorate of 1,03,44,315 voters across the city’s 227 wards. The Maharashtra State Election Commission had announced the detailed election schedule a day earlier, formally setting the stage for a crucial urban political contest in the state’s financial capital.
The high-profile civic polls are part of elections being conducted for 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra. Voting will take place on January 15, while counting of votes is scheduled for January 16. In Mumbai, the election is expected to witness a direct and intense battle between the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, with control of key urban centres at stake. The outcome is likely to have a significant political impact, given Mumbai’s economic importance and the BMC’s substantial financial resources.
Civic elections in Mumbai are being held after a gap of nearly nine years, with the previous polls conducted in 2017. The five-year tenure of elected BMC corporators officially ended on March 7, 2022. Since then, the civic body has been administered by a government-appointed administrator, rather than an elected council. This prolonged absence of elected representatives has made the upcoming polls particularly significant, as they will restore an elected governing body to oversee civic administration and major infrastructure decisions in the city.
According to the final voter rolls, Mumbai’s electorate includes 55,16,707 male voters, 48,26,509 female voters, and 1,077 registered as ‘other’ voters. This marks a substantial increase from the 2017 elections, when the city had 91,80,497 voters in total. Official data shows Polling Ward 164 in the ‘L’ ward has the highest number of voters at 62,945, while Polling Ward 142 in ‘M-East’ has the lowest at 31,575. With voter lists finalised, political parties have stepped up campaign preparations.