The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is celebrating a massive win in the Maharashtra civic elections, grabbing a huge lead before the first vote is even cast. In a major sweep across the state, 68 of their candidates have been elected unopposed. This early victory was confirmed on Friday, 2nd January, right after the deadline for withdrawing nominations ended.
Several rivals from other parties chose to pull out of the race, leaving the path completely clear for the Mahayuti to take these seats without any competition.
Not single vote cast, Mahayuti surges | BJP, allies grab 68 seats without voting, ahead of municipal polls scheduled for January 15. @dipeshtripathi0 with more details
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) January 3, 2026
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The BJP is leading this charge with 44 uncontested seats, showing its strong hold on urban areas. The biggest win came from the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, where the alliance picked up 21 seats. They also saw success in major cities like Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Panvel, and Jalgaon.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his team are being credited for this, with leaders saying the results show how much people trust their governance. In Pune, candidates like Manjusha Nagpure and Shrikant Jagtap are already set to return to their roles as winners.
Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena also performed very well, securing 22 unopposed victories, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP added two more to the total. Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol expressed great confidence, stating that the next mayor of Pune will definitely be from the BJP. He noted that they’ve already hit two of their 125-seat goal for the city. Party spokespeople feel this success proves the Mahayuti’s footprint is expanding across all of Maharashtra’s big municipal corporations.
The win has sparked some drama. The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s MNS have criticised the situation. They claim that democracy is being ignored because opposition candidates were pressured or bribed to step down.
Priyanka Chaturvedi even mentioned that people were being scared off by threats from central agencies. Because of these complaints, the State Election Commission has ordered an inquiry to make sure everything was done fairly. Despite the noise, the Mahayuti is heading into the main election day on 15th January with a lot of momentum, especially for the high-stakes Mumbai (BMC) polls.
