Overview
- Polling runs from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm under the State Election Commission’s schedule, with counting set to begin on January 16.
- Officials say 3.48 crore voters are eligible across 29 municipal corporations, with roughly 39,000 polling centres and thousands of candidates in the fray.
- Early voters in Mumbai included Akshay Kumar, Twinkle Khanna, Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Hema Malini, as Kumar called voting the day the “remote control” is in citizens’ hands and Khanna said she votes out of “habit and hope.”
- Reports from some booths cited missing voting slips and sparse crowds, drawing complaints from photographer Avinash Gowariker and musician Vishal Dadlani.
- In Mumbai’s BMC contest, the BJP-led Mahayuti faces the alliance of Raj and Uddhav Thackeray for control of a civic body with a budget exceeding Rs 74,000 crore.