Tej SH
The Pune Municipal Corporation Elections were conducted on the 15th of January 2026. The elections were conducted over the 41 wards in Pune. Each ward had over fifty polling booths. The voter turnouts in these booths had more men than women and other genders.
The Pune Municipal Corporation Elections had a lesser turnout rate than the previous elections. The 2017 PMC Elections had a 55.5% turnout compared to the 54.5% of 2026 PMC elections show a slight yet substantial decline in the voter turnouts. The elections were held on Thursday and the polling booths were open from 7:30AM till 5:30PM.
The votes will be counted at 10AM and the results will be announced on the same day. “The counting process is about to begin sometime in the D ward here. We have deployed appropriate arrangements… There is 1 riot-control police platoon, 7-8 officers and 100 policemen” says Pimpri-Chinchwad DCP Vishal Gaikwad.
Apart from Pune, voting had taken place in many major urban centres in Maharashtra. Some of these include Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The elections contested in Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad are keenly watched as both factions of the Nationalist Congress Party join powers for the first time since their split in 2023. This alliance mainly stems from the need to counter the current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The PMC elections saw a contest amongst 1,165 contestants over the 41 wards in Pune. The elections were contested over 165 seats. Over 17 lakh voters are registered and they have the choice to elect 36 ward members. Compared to the 2017 elections where there were 1,090 candidates contesting, there seems to be a higher competition this year.
In a shocking turn of events, for the first time ever, the counting of votes began without the voter turnout percentage being announced for the PMC. The counting of votes will be decentralised and will be held at one centre for each of the 15 wards.
The exit polls had predicted that the BJP would win in both the Pune Municipal elections as well as the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal elections. The predictions from the forecast also suggest that the BJP would secure most of the seats in both of these civic bodies.