Overview
- Counting on January 16 shows the BJP with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena leading in early BMC rounds and across several municipal corporations.
- The State Election Commission rejected allegations that polling ink was easily erasable and warned that removing the mark to vote again is an offence.
- In Mumbai, turnout reached 52.94% for 227 wards with 1.03 crore eligible voters, and police enforced tight security at 23 counting centres.
- Early ward updates indicated BJP strength in south Mumbai’s Malabar Hill, a first declared BMC win for Congress in Ward 183, a neck‑and‑neck contest in Navi Mumbai, and Congress ahead in Kolhapur.
- City snapshots showed the BJP leading in Nagpur and making gains in Pune and Pimpri‑Chinchwad, as new opposition alignments led by Uddhav and Raj Thackeray faced an early deficit.