Mumbai (Maharashtra) : Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday questioned the prolonged delay in holding municipal elections in Maharashtra and called for action against the State Election Commissioner, demanding transparency over the functioning of the election machinery.
Speaking to reporters, Thackeray said it should be made public how the Election Commissioner is paid and what the Commission and its staff were doing during the years-long delay in conducting civic polls. He pointed out that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections are being held after a gap of nine years.
“It should be revealed how the Election Commissioner is paid. The Mumbai municipal elections are taking place after nine years. What were the Election Commissioner and his staff doing all these years? Action should be taken against those responsible for this delay,” Thackeray said.
Urging citizens to participate actively in the democratic process, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said that he and his family had already exercised their voting rights. “Our entire family voted together. We appeal to all voters in constituencies where elections are being held to come out and vote,” he added.
Polling is underway in 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, following an intense campaign that has set the stage for a high-stakes political contest in major urban centres, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The BJP-led Mahayuti is contesting the local body polls largely as a joint alliance, except in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, where the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has allied with Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP). In these two cities, both NCP factions are contesting together under a joint manifesto.
The key political battles are centred on Mumbai and Pune. In Mumbai, the BJP-led Mahayuti faces a united Thackeray camp, with Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray joining hands ahead of the polls on the issue of “son of the soil” in a bid to gain control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the country’s richest civic body. The last BMC elections were held in 2017.
In Pune, a significant political realignment took place just ahead of the civic polls, with both factions of the NCP coming together following the party split in 2023. Ajit Pawar reunited with Sharad Pawar and chose to contest against NDA partner BJP in Pune. Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena decided to go solo in the Pune Municipal Corporation elections after failing to reach a seat-sharing agreement with the BJP.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), around 3.48 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots to decide the fate of 15,908 candidates contesting 2,869 seats across 893 wards in 29 municipal corporations. A total of 39,092 polling centres have been set up across the state to facilitate the voting process.