Mumbai: Mumbai witnessed the much-awaited start of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Thursday, January 15, 2026, after nearly four years without an elected civic body. Polling began promptly at 7:30 am across all 227 wards, with early morning queues forming at booths as voters turned out to decide the fate of 1,700 candidates competing for the city’s top civic seats.
However, the enthusiasm of voters was dampened by a series of technical and administrative challenges. Many citizens reported difficulties accessing their voter slips online, while others struggled to locate their names at polling stations. Despite being registered, several voters found the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) website displaying “data not available,” leaving them stranded and frustrated.
Social media quickly became a platform for airing grievances, with citizens and political leaders criticizing the SEC. NCP-SP national spokesperson Anish Gawande wrote on X, “Absolute circus: mahasecvoterlist.in crashed when Mumbai needs it most. Voters stuck at polling booths hunting for names in dusty printed lists like it’s 1995. This is Digital India?”
Beyond the website issues, multiple voters complained of physical challenges at the booths. Booth mergers and reassignments caused confusion, forcing some citizens to manually search through printed electoral rolls. “My name is on one booth, my parents are on another in a completely different location. What a goddamn shame,” Gawande added, highlighting broader administrative lapses.
Despite these challenges, voting continued under strict security arrangements. Over 64,000 election personnel were deployed across more than 10,000 polling stations throughout Mumbai. The state government had declared a public holiday to encourage voter turnout among the city’s 1.03 crore eligible citizens.
Voting will continue until 5:30 pm, after which all Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be securely transported to zonal counting centers. Counting is scheduled to begin at 10:00 am on January 16, with results expected later in the evening.
