Explained: Why BMC elections today haven’t been held since 2017

BMC Elections: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections will be held across Mumbai today, 15 January.

Voting is being held today across 227 civic wards of Mumbai from 7.30 AM to 5.30 PM. The counting of votes will take place on Friday, 16 January. A total of 1,700 candidates are in the running, comprising 878 women and 822 men. There are 1,03,44,315 voters, comprising 55,15,707 men, 48,26,509 women, and 1,099 eligible to vote in the BMC elections.

The last BMC polls were held in 2017. The term of the corporators ended on 7 March 2022, and subsequent elections could not be held in time, resulting in the civic body being placed under the administration of an administrator.

Why was the BMC poll delayed?

In Maharashtra, the civic body elections, originally scheduled for 2020, were deferred initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, the civic elections, originally scheduled for March 2022, were deferred again following the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to allow the Other Backwards Class (OBC) quota in local body elections only after conducting a rigorous empirical inquiry.

On 21 July 2022, the Supreme Court allowed a reservation of up to 27% for OBC in Nagar Panchayat, Nagar Parishad and BMC elections, accepting the State Commission’s report. However, it clarified that the SEC must not re-notify the election programme in 367 local bodies, which included the BMC, to provide reservation.

On 22 July of the same year, the SEC reclassified wards in BMC, stating that of the total 236 seats, 156 were reserved for the general category, 15 for the Scheduled Castes (SC), 2 for the Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 63 for the OBC category. The Supreme Court warned the SEC not to renotify the election programme and ordered the status quo in OBC reservations in local body elections.

Delimitation in Mumbai Wards

In Mumbai, the additional issue of delimitation of municipal wards further delayed the civic polls.

The Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has decided to increase the number of seats from 227 to 236. This led to the SEC redrawing wards in Mumbai in February 2022. Following the split of the Shiv Sena, the subsequent Eknath Shinde government withdrew this order in August 2022. In April 2023, the Bombay High Court upheld this order.

On 4 August 2025, the Supreme Court directed the SEC to conduct local body polls in Maharashtra by January 2026, in accordance with the new ward reservation and a 27% OBC reservation. The apex court also pulled up the SEC for the delay in holding the elections.

The elections to elect a new civic body in Mumbai and other cities of Maharashtra were primarily due to several reasons, including the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the delimitation of ward boundaries, and reservations.

What happened in 2017 BMC polls?

In the last BMC elections in 2017, Shiv Sena, which has controlled the city’s civic body since 1985, was nearly dethroned by the BJP. The undivided Sena won 84 seats while the BJP bagged 82 seats. Due to neither party winning an outright majority in the 227-seat corporation, they had to strike an uneasy bargain, with the BJP allowing the Sena to retain the mayor’s post. However, since the disintegration of the original coalition and the split in the Shiv Sena, the BJP is aiming to finally break through the Sena’s power centre and install Mumbai’s first BJP mayor.

What does the Constitution say?

The 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution, passed by Parliament in 1992, established rural and local bodies of government, which are chosen directly by citizens, and State election commissions to hold elections to these bodies.

Each Panchayat or urban civic body has a term of five years. One-third of the seats are reserved for women, with a number proportional to the SC/ST population in the state reserved for these communities. Additionally, OBC reservation can be provided if States find it necessary. The State Election Commission is an autonomous body, and the commissioner is an independent officer, not under the control of the Election Commission of India.

With polls now scheduled for 15 January, the long hiatus will end, and voters will return representatives to manage India’s richest municipal corporation, responsible for one of the largest civic budgets in the country.