BMC Maharashtra Election Results 2026 LIVE: Counting of votes to begin at 10 am across 23 centres

As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections draw closer, Ward 68 has emerged as one of the key constituencies to watch. Voters in the ward will choose their corporator as part of the larger BMC election process, which will shape Mumbai’s civic leadership for the next five years.

Sitaare Zameen Par: B-town biggies cast vote in civic polls, hope for cleaner and better Mumbai

A host of Bollywood personalities, including Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, stepped out of their homes and voted in the Mumbai civic body polls on Thursday with hope "right" candidates will win and tackle crucial issues, from infrastructure challenges to pollution.

Actors Hema Malini, Saira Banu, Shabana Azmi, John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Vicky Kaushal, Janhvi Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Kartik Aaryan, Paresh Rawal and screenwriter Salim Khan, also exercised their franchise.

Maharashtra records 50% turnout in civic polls

Around 50 per cent polling was recorded in Mumbai and 28 other municipal corporations in Maharashtra on Thursday amid sporadic clashes, while a major controversy erupted over claims that the ink applied on voters' fingers could be easily removed. The polling day saw clashes among groups, allegations of bogus voting and distribution of cash as well as glitches in EVMs.

First BMC polls after 2022 Sena split set stage for power shift

Maharashtra witnessed first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena when Eknath Shinde, now Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, broke away with a majority of the party's MLAs and allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to become the Chief Minister in 2022. The undivided Shiv Sena held sway over India's richest civic body for 25 years (1997-2022).

Staff deployment and technical arrangements for BMC Election Results

For the counting day, a total of 2,299 personnel have been deployed, including 759 supervisors, 770 assistants and 770 Class IV employees. The BMC has confirmed that all staff members have undergone prior training to prevent procedural lapses. Arrangements for counting halls, table layouts, CCTV surveillance, fire safety measures and medical support have been finalised. A computerised system will be used to tabulate and declare the results, ensuring accuracy and transparency.

BMC polls: Change in counting process may delay results on Friday

Phase-wise counting of votes in Mumbai, instead of simultaneously across all 227 electoral wards as done in 2017, could delay the declaration of results when the enumeration process begins on Friday morning, civic officials said on Thursday. In a release, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said counting of votes polled in the elections on Thursday will begin at 10 am across 23 centres in the metropolis.

As in past elections, the counting of all wards will not start simultaneously - instead, votes from two wards will be counted at a time. This means counting for only 46 wards will begin at 10 am, instead of all 227 wards at once.

Ink used for Maharashtra civic polls easy to wipe off, claims Opposition; SEC to conduct probe

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Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday evening said it would conduct a thorough probe into the quality of the `indelible' ink in marker pens used for the civic polls, after opposition leaders alleged that the mark on a voter's finger could be removed easily, enabling bogus voting.

Amid polling for 29 municipal corporations including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), social media was flooded with videos claiming to demonstrate how the ink could be removed using chemicals such as acetone, even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis dismissed the claims.