The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance is leading in early counting trends in the closely watched Vasai Virar municipal elections.The Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation is responsible for the city’s infrastructure and urban planning. A total of 1,234,690 voters are set to elect representatives from 29 wards, with one councillor chosen from each ward.
In the 2015 Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation elections, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi secured a decisive victory, winning 106 seats and gaining full control of the municipal body.
Vote counting is underway at designated centres under tight security, officials said, cautioning that trends could change as results emerge over multiple rounds. While several wards are seeing close contests, a few have recorded clear early leads.In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has an annual budget of more than Rs 74,400 crore, around 1,700 candidates are contesting 227 seats in elections being held after a four-year delay. Unlike Mumbai, other urban local bodies in the state have multi-member wards.These are the first BMC elections since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, when Eknath Shinde, now Deputy Chief Minister, broke away with a majority of the party’s MLAs and allied with the BJP to form the state government.The undivided Shiv Sena controlled India’s richest civic body for 25 years, from 1997 to 2022. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, which includes the Shiv Sena faction, is seeking a clear majority to govern the corporation.
