Ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, election authorities have seized Rs 40,000 in cash in Mumbai. The cash was recovered by the Flying Surveillance Team (FST) near CSMT, close to St George Hospital. Officials said the seizure was made as part of routine monitoring under the Model Code of Conduct. The matter has been reported to the Returning Officer (RO) and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) implementation in-charge, who is the A Ward officer, for further action.
To ensure free and fair conduct of the 2026 BMC elections, the BMC has deployed 148 flying squads along with 181 static surveillance teams to strictly monitor and enforce the Model Code of Conduct. Over the past few days, these teams have seized 1,237 litres of liquor worth Rs 8.03 lakh. Authorities have also confiscated 55 kilograms of narcotics valued at Rs 44.95 crore. In addition, as part of efforts to curb cash-for-votes practices, election officials and police have recovered Rs 3.10 crore in unaccounted cash.
The official campaign period for BMC elections will come to an end on January 13 at 5.30 pm, after which all political parties and candidates are required to take down their campaign material without delay. Any violation of this directive will lead to action under laws related to property defacement, and the cost of removing such material will be recovered from the candidates and added to their election expenditure, Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Ashwini Joshi said.
Seat-sharing pact of parties ahead of BMC elections
Following days of deliberations and discussions, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena have finalised the seat-sharing pact for the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). As per the formula derived by the Mahayuti partners, the saffron party will contest on 140 seats while the Shinde Sena will fight on 87 seats, said sources on Friday.
The polling for the BMC will take place on January 15, along with all other municipal corporations in the state. The counting of votes will take place on January 16.
The development comes days after the marathon meetings that were held by the two alliance partners amid reports of discontent between them. However, the BJP and the Shinde Sena had dismissed such reports, with sources saying that they have already finalised the seat-sharing arrangement for 200 seats and discussions were underway for the remaining 27.
Amid reports of discontent, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier backed the Shiv Sena and directed BJP leaders to avoid openly attacking Shinde's party. While briefing the reporters on Friday, the chief minister once again asserted that the BJP and Shiv Sena are united and they don't need formally announce an alliance.
"The BJP and Shiv Sena are united. Everything is going on smoothly. We do not need to formally announce an alliance," he said earlier in the day.
Mahayuti's dominance in municipal council, nagar panchayat elections
The Mahayuti, which also consists Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had dominated the municipal council and nagar panchayat elections in Maharashtra. The polling for them was held on two phases, December 2 and December 20, and the results were declared by the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC).
The BJP won 117 posts of municipal presidents, followed by Shiv Sena which won 53. The NCP won 37 posts, the Congress 28, Shiv Sena (UBT) nine and NCP (SP) seven. Five seats were won by Independents and 28 by unrecognised registered parties, as per the SEC.
