Overview
- The ruling alliance promised 3.5 million affordable homes through slum and chawl redevelopment, a freeze on annual water tax hikes for five years, half-fare BEST travel for women, and major boosts to metro, water transport and building approvals.
- Devendra Fadnavis said an IIT-linked AI system with roughly 60% reliability is being developed to identify illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya residents for deportation, adding that a detention center has been set up.
- Eknath Shinde and allies pledged a major upgrade of the BEST fleet toward 12,000 buses from about 5,000 and expanded jetties and water taxi routes across the Mumbai coast.
- Uddhav and Raj Thackeray held a joint Mumbai rally framing the vote as a last stand for Marathi identity, accusing the BJP of ‘fake Hindutva’ and alleging favoritism toward the Adani Group.
- Raj Thackeray escalated the language plank with a warning against ‘Hindi imposition’, as voting across 227 BMC wards is set for January 15 with counting on January 16, alongside signs of alliance strains elsewhere in the state.