Mahayuti Alliance Wins Maharashtra Local Polls

The ruling Mahayuti alliance claimed a decisive victory in the Maharashtra municipal council and nagar panchayat elections on Sunday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as the single largest party by securing control of 127 local bodies. The results, announced after vote counting began at 10 a.m. across the state, highlighted the alliance's dominance in 286 urban local bodies, including 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats, following polls held in two phases on December 2 and December 20.

The elections, the first in nearly a decade for these semi-urban and rural bodies, pitted the Mahayuti coalition—comprising the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party—against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. According to the State Election Commission, the Mahayuti partners collectively won a majority in over 200 local bodies. The BJP led with 127 victories, followed by the Shinde Shiv Sena with 54 and the Ajit Pawar NCP with 37. In contrast, the MVA secured far fewer seats: the Congress won 29 councils, the Thackeray...