Overview
- Mumbai’s BMC election on January 15, alongside 28 other Maharashtra civic polls, is the first major contest that will signal urban voter sentiment.
- Five assemblies — West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry — are scheduled to vote in the first half of 2026, testing incumbents and the BJP’s push into the South and East.
- The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision has become a flashpoint after large draft-roll deletions in several states, with opposition parties alleging disenfranchisement.
- India’s first fully digital census, including a caste count, begins in 2026 with houselisting set for April to September and population enumeration planned for early 2027, reviving debates over post-2026 delimitation.
- The BJP is expected to formalise Nitin Nabin as party president in the first half of the year, as Congress prepares nationwide protests from January 5 and Parliament readies contentious proposals such as synchronized elections.