Mumbai: On January 2, the final day for withdrawing nominations to contest the civic polls, as many as 68 candidates across multiple municipal corporations in Maharashtra suddenly pulled out of the race, paving the way for unopposed victories for the ruling Mahayuti alliance – the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party – in these wards.This unprecedented scale of unopposed wins, which includes 44 for the BJP, 22 for Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), and two for NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), is the highest ever recorded in Maharashtra’s civic election history.The win, although not formally announced by the State Election Commission (SEC), sparked controversy and after multiple complaints now, the SEC has ordered an inquiry to find out if coercive means were adopted to push candidates out of the fray.‘Thrown under the bus’While opposition parties have alleged intimidation and “horse-trading,” some of the candidates who withdrew their nominations have offered a different explanation: they blame their own parties’ “lack of preparation” and “failure to treat the elections seriously”. Take the example of Shruti Chougule, who was given a ticket as a candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) party to contest the upcoming Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation elections. She and her husband claim to have worked in Ward Number 24 for many years and say were promised a ticket from their own ward, but at the very last moment, an entirely different ward was allotted to her.Shiv Sena workers ride backhoe loaders during a public rally of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ahead of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) elections, in Navi Mumbai, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: PTI.Shruti’s husband, Shyam Chougule, who has been with the party (Shiv Sena UBT) for over 25 years, said that being sent to a constituency where they had zero presence would amount to “political suicide”.“We painstakingly built our presence in the Old Dombivli region. Here, everyone knows us by our names and faces. And suddenly, a ticket for an entirely different constituency was handed over, and we were plainly told to contest,” he added.Chougule blamed the leadership of his own party and said the confusion was caused almost by design. “The district leadership is well aware of where their candidates are strong and what their winning chances are. The state has not held corporation elections for close to a decade now. Many candidates have been waiting and working to become figures of prominence in their constituencies for this long, yet they were suddenly shunned to unknown waters. Elections are not won like this,” he added.In a neighbouring ward, another candidate, Priyanka Akash Patil, was also denied a ticket from her core constituency and was allegedly shifted to a ward unknown to her. Patil too claimed that candidates were “kept in the dark” until the last moment and then asked to campaign in areas they were barely familiar with.‘Bags containing Rs 5 crore’While the maximum number of withdrawals occurred in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), similar withdrawals were also seen in other districts. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut alleged that candidates were paid Rs 5 crores each to withdraw from the election. “Bags containing Rs 5 crore each were sent to the houses of candidates in Jalgaon to force them to withdraw,” Raut alleged.He challenged the EC to check mobile phone records. “Check the phone records of everyone involved. Investigate who called whom in the last 24 hours. See which guardian minister – which minister made calls and to whom,” he said.Similar allegations were also made by MNS Thane district chief Avinash Jadhav, who claimed MNS candidates were offered Rs 5 crore to withdraw from the fray.Raut has alleged that returning officers too were pressurised and forced to accept withdrawal submissions even after the 3 pm deadline.However, the allegation was refuted by Priyanka Patil’s husband, Akash. “We didn’t even receive party funds for the elections, yet we continued our work. It was a painful decision to withdraw the nomination, but we had to take it,” he said.After the Sena disintegrated in 2022 and two factions were formed, several prominent party leaders and activists had jumped shift to Shinde’s faction. This split is most palpable in the civic elections where UBT activists claim that the party doesn’t have good candidates in most districts and have had to make do with “dummy candidates” – placeholders – to file nominations. “And these dummy candidates simply gave into the first offer that came their way,” said a party worker from north Mumbai.Polling officials take part in a training session on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) ahead of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) election, in Thane, Maharashtra, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. Photo: PTI.Unusual alliancesThe chaos is not seen in just one party. In the recently concluded municipal council elections, the Congress won 12 seats out of the 60- member Ambernath Municipal Council. The BJP secured 14, Shiv Sena won 27 seats, NCP got four and two seats went to independents. Interestingly, it emerged that in order to keep Sena out of power, Congress, BJP and NCP had joined hands. As soon as the news broke, the party heads issued a letter suspending the party’s Ambernath block president Pradeep Patil.A similar unusual alliance was forged in Akola’s Akot town between BJP and AIMIM. In the 35-member Akot municipal council, BJP had won 11 seats and failed to secure a clear majority. The decision to join hands with AIMIM, local BJP leaders say, was a strategy to gain power and not an ideological one.But within hours of the alliance being announced, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis warned of action against BJP leaders involved in this unusual arrangement. A show-cause notice was issued to BJP’s Akot MLA Prakash Bharsakale, accusing him of being the brain behind this partnership.These inconsistencies in party alliances have become the most talked about issue in this election. Parties that are in alliance in the district are fighting against each other. In some places, many parties are fighting alone. For example, Shinde’s Shiv Sena, that enjoys a strong presence in Thane, is contesting alone. The BJP too is contesting separately. Sharad Pawar’s NCP has joined hands with Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). The Congress and Ajit Pawar’s NCP have decided to contest on their own. But just in the neighbouring Kalyan-Dombivli, Shinde and the BJP have come together, while Thackeray’s Sena, MNS, and NCP (Sharad Pawar) are in an alliance.The Mahayuti also does not exist in Pune district. The BJP, Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP are all fighting against each other there. Interestingly, Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar have joined hands here and are fighting against other parties. The Congress which is largely contesting on its own in most districts has forged ties with Thackeray’s Sena in Pune. And Thackeray, out of its total share of 65 seats in Pune has given 21 to MNS.In Mumbai, Congress is in alliance with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. In as many as 29 out of the 227 seats, the Congress-VBA combine has no candidates. The VBA was expected to contest on 62 seats but managed to field only 46 candidates as they could not find appropriate candidates for the rest.