"Maharashtra Gears Up for Big Civic Battle — Election Process Starts Across 29 Cities Including Mumbai"

The Maharashtra government has started the long-pending process for holding municipal elections in 29 cities, including Mumbai, by beginning the work of drawing new ward boundaries. This process covers major cities like Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) and Kalyan-Dombivli. The Urban Development Department told the Municipal Commissioners in all these cities to start preparing drafts of ward boundaries. These drafts will be sent to the State Election Commission (SEC) for review and approval.

 

As part of this process, people will get a chance to give suggestions and raise objections to the draft boundaries. The municipal bodies will also hold public hearings before finalizing the ward limits.

 

The order also clearly said that the ward boundaries must be made using the latest census data only. It added that the number of voters or current population in any area should not affect how the boundaries are drawn. This action by the state government comes after a recent Supreme Court order. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N.K. Singh told the state to announce elections for all pending local bodies within four weeks and finish the full election process within four months. The court also said that OBC reservation in local elections should go back to how it was before 2022. This order was in response to several court petitions that said elections had been delayed for more than two years. The court made it clear that democracy should not suffer because of delays in procedure.

 

Referring to the May 6, 2025 order, the Urban Development Department said that holding local elections now is urgent. It also said that the election process has three main stages:

1. Drawing the ward boundaries,

2. Fixing reservations, and

3. Dividing voter lists ward-wise and holding the polls.

 

Because each of these stages takes time, the department said that work should begin right away. That’s why they have now issued orders to start the ward formation in all municipal bodies.

 

In Mumbai, which is home to the country’s richest civic body – the BMC, the system of one corporator per ward will continue. The total number of wards will stay at 227. The BMC Commissioner will handle this process for Mumbai, while in other cities, the work will be done by local municipal officers based on the category of the city.

 

This move is an important step toward bringing back local elected representatives in Maharashtra’s cities. With elections getting closer, political parties and citizens will now closely follow how ward boundaries and reservations are set.