Thane civic elections 2026: Voter turnout reaches 19 per cent till 11.30 am

An average voter turnout of 19 per cent was recorded in the first two hours of polling for the Thane Municipal Corporation TMC elections 2026 on Thursday according to officialsPolling commenced at 730 am amid tight security arrangements across Thane and will continue until 530 pmThe civic body said the overall turnout stood at 19 per cent till 1130 am with data indicating significant variations in voter participation across different ward committeesAmong the wards Uthalsar recorded a turnout of 2141 per cent while Diva registered some of the highest participation with 2229 per cent in Ward Nos 27 and 28 and 2025 per cent in Ward Nos 29 and 33 Lokmanya Savarkar Nagar reported a turnout of 198 per cent and NaupadandashKopri stood at 1927 per centMajiwada and Vartak Nagar ward committees recorded similar turnout levels of 1826 per cent and 1830 per cent respectively Kalwa saw 1792 per cent polling while Wagle Ward Committee reported 1702 per centIn the Mumbra area voter turnout remained comparatively lower with 1624 per cent recorded in Ward Nos 26 and 31 and 1825 per cent in Ward Nos 30 and 32 officials saidVoting underwayVoting in 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra began on Thursday morning with spotlight on Mumbai where the BJPled Mahayuti alliance is locked in an intense battle with the reunited Thackeray cousins for control of Indias largest and richest civic bodyPolling for 2869 seats spread across 893 wards in these municipal corporations began amid tight security at 730 am and will conclude at 530 pm A total of 348 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15931 candidatesIn the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC whose annual budget is over Rs 74 400 crore 1700 candidates are vying for 227 seats in elections being held after nine years after a fouryear delay More than 25000 police personnel have been deployed across Mumbai to oversee electionsExcept for Mumbai the other urban bodies have multimember wards Vote count will take place on January 16These are the first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena when Eknath Shinde now Deputy Chief Minister broke away with a majority of the partys MLAs and allied with the BJP to become the chief ministerThe undivided Shiv Sena held sway over Indias richest civic body for 25 years 19972022In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray who head Shiv Sena UBT and MNS respectively reunited last month after two decades in their bid to consolidate Marathi votes even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and PimpriChinchwadThe Congress once a formidable political force in Maharashtra has asserted its presence in Mumbai by stepping out of the shadow of its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Shiv Sena UBT and NCP SPThe grand old party has joined hands with Prakash Ambedkars Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi VBA and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh in the state capitalElections to the 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of several years with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023 Of these nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR the most urbanised belt in India