Maharashtra set for local body polls on December 2 amid friendly fights, alliance strain, legal tangles

Mumbai: Maharashtra will witness the first round of the three-tier local bodies elections — which collectively is a mega-polls of sorts after the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls —- being held amid rising tensions among the BJP and its Maha Yuti allies Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP and a fragmented opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

The December 2 polls are very important in many respects as it would be a sort of litmus test for both the sides as it comes ahead of the elections to the 29 municipal corporations including Mumbai and the 32 zilla parishads and 336 panchayat samitis - covering the cities as well as the rural areas.

Over 1.07 crore voters are eligible to participate at 13,355 polling booths, with EVMs deployed across all locations. More than 66,000 personnel will oversee the electoral exercise.

The model code of conduct has been in force since November 4, when State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare announced the schedule.

Campaigning will continue until 10 pm on December 1.

The elections will decide 6,859 posts of councillors and 288 council presidents.

Reservations include 3,492 seats for women, 895 for Scheduled Castes, 338 for Scheduled Tribes and 1,821 for OBCs.

Candidates contesting for council president can spend up to Rs 15 lakh, while the limit for members is Rs 12 lakh.

Nominations opened on November 10, closed on November 17, underwent scrutiny on November 18 and could be withdrawn until November 21. The SEC recorded more than 51,000 filings.

If one looks at the elections region-wise, the polls span 27 councils in Konkan, 59 in Nashik, 60 in Pune and 55 in Nagpur divisions. Ten municipal councils and 15 nagar panchayats are newly formed entities going to polls for the first time.

The contests pit the ruling Maha Yuti—BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP—against the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and the Congress.

However, in many places, the allies are contesting against each other - which even led to war of words between Fadnavis and Shinde.

The BJP has already claimed an early advantage with 100 councillors and three council presidents elected unopposed.

The BJP has also drawn criticism in Nanded’s Loha Nagar Parishad, where

Opposition demands for delaying the polls have grown amid allegations of duplicate and fake entries in the July 1 voter list revision. In response, the Election Commission has marked suspected duplicate names with double stars and instructed polling officials to carry out strict voter ID verification.

CM express concern over SEC’s decision

On the other hand, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed surprise and concern over the State Election Commission’s decision to postpone local body polls in some areas of the state till December 20. "The decision to postpone some of the elections, triggered by someone's petition in court and sub judice matters, was unfair to other candidates," Fadnavis said, adding that he is unable to fathom why the SEC has done that. “I don't know who the Election Commission is consulting. But as far as I know about law, elections cannot be postponed because someone has moved the court,” he said.

The CM cited the case of Nilanga in Latur district as an example where the entire election process had been completed. "Someone whose candidature was rejected went to the court," he said, adding "the candidates who filed their nominations got a complete time for the election process. Cancelling the elections at such a moment because someone has gone to court is completely wrong."

Polls at a glance:

Total local bodies going to polls: 288

Nagar Parishad (Municipal Council): 246

Nagar Panchayat (Town Council): 42

Division wise:

Konkan (27)

Nashik (49)

Pune (60)

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (52)

Amravati (45)

Nagpur (55).

Total electors: 1,07,03,576

(Males - 53,79,93, Females - 53,22,870, Others - 775)

Total polling stations: 13,355

Date of polling: 2 December, 2025

Date of counting: 3 December, 2025