Mumbai: On January 15, elections of municipal corporations are simultaneously scheduled across 29 districts of Maharashtra. Besides the high stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, each district has witnessed new permutations and combinations of alliances and the election campaign has been dominated by Marathi pride, communal undertones, and serious accusations of corruption rather than purely civic issues like infrastructure, sanitation, and urban development.Elections in the 29 municipal corporations have been delayed due to various legal battles including the issue of Other Backward Classes reservations and ward delimitation. This delay meant that civic governance took a serious beating. There is thus a lot of expectation riding on the day when the results are announced on January 16.Cities like Mumbai, Thane and Pune have been in dire need of better roads, flood control and public transport but the discourse has intentionally veered sharply toward divisive narratives.‘Immigrants’On January 11, the Bharatiya Janata Party, along with its allies Shiv Sena and Republican Party Of India (Athawale) released its manifesto for Mumbai. Among the list of promises, including 50% concession on BEST bus tickets, the most curious of all is the plan to “use artificial intelligence (AI)” in identifying “Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants” in the city. Unveiling the manifesto, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the highest number of Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants are residing in the city and that the state will take help from IIT to design an AI tool that will help identify the “infiltration”.This is not the first time the word “Bangladeshi immigrants” has featured in the civic elections. Just 10 days ago, several politicians, from both the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition had tried to make an issue out of the inclusion of a Bangladeshi cricketer Mustafizur Rahman in actor Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Indian Premier League team. KKR had to eventually drop Rahman from the team.Soon after Fadnavis harped on “Bangladeshis” in the city, Congress spokesperson demanded that the BJP release data on the “immigrants”. “If the government has truly identified the maximum number, it should release the figures,” said Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.Also read: Mahayuti’s Unopposed Victories, Locality-Based Alliances, ‘Bribes’: The Civic Poll Chaos in MaharashtraAlliancesThis election has many firsts. The Mahayuti – BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar) – that is in power in the state are contesting together in some places and in some, they have pitted candidates against each other. The Mahavikas Aghadi, that once comprised Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party too have split in several places and are fighting separate battles.In the recently concluded municipal council elections in Ambernath and Akot in Akola two unexpected developments took place that give us an inkling of how chaotic the alliance-forging process has been ahead of the municipal corporation elections. In Ambernath, the BJP and Congress decided to shake hands just to keep Shinde’s party out of power. As the Congress leadership took a clear stand, suspending its elected members, all 12 election councillors resigned from the party to join the BJP. In another similar development, BJP was seen in an alliance with councillors of AIMIM for the Akot Municipal Council.These developments have hijacked the discourse on the ground in the upcoming civic polls as well.ThackeraysThe Thackeray cousins (Uddhav and MNS chief Raj) have reunited under an alliance to gather Marathi voters, countering the perceived threat to the “Marathi manoos” identity. When BJP’s Tamil Nadu leader K Annamalai made a remark that Mumbai is an international city and doesn’t belong to Maharashtra alone, both Sena (UBT) and MNS reacted strongly to the claim. While Raj Thackeray mockingly called Annamalai “rasmalai”, Aditya Thackeray (UBT- Sena) said that Annamalai’s statement shows that his party only knows to “insult and loot” Mumbai and Maharashtra.Raj Thackeray, at a rally in Shivaji Park in Mumbai, also played a video showing the extent to which the Adani Group has gained control over the country’s resources and projects in the past decade.Between 2014 and 2025, span of just eleven year the Adani Group, with the government’s blessings, has expanded across the country at an unprecedented pace, steadily building dominance across multiple sectors.This video offers a glimpse into that rapid rise and growing monopoly… pic.twitter.com/vbw1p3ZycM— Raj Thackeray (@RajThackeray) January 13, 2026“In the past few years, the way the Adani Group has been expanding – be it the power sector, ports, airports, or anything else – nearly every sector in the state is being handed over to the Adani Group… If we, as Marathi people, don’t look at the expansion of this single industrial group with seriousness today, then inch by inch of land in this state will go to this one industrial group alone,” he wrote on X.Also read: Communalism, an IPL Team and Confusing Alliances: How the Maharashtra Municipal Polls Are Playing OutBribery allegations also intensified this election. Raj Thackeray has accused the ruling Mahayuti of widespread vote-buying, offering cash to voters (as high as Rs 5,000 per vote in some areas) and massive sums (crores in certain cases) to opposition candidates to withdraw nominations. He accused several candidates of receiving offers ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 15 crore. In as many as 68 seats (with BJP alone in 44 seats) the Mahayuti candidates are winning unopposed. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has described the process as “institutionalised corruption” and a “farce”.The State Election Commission has promised inquiries into such complaints, but so far nothing substantial has come out of the promises.A few days ago, the Mahayuti government announced release of Rs 1,500 under the ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’ to women a day before the polling. This announcement was in clear violation of the election’s model code of conduct. Following several complaints, the state election commission (SEC), finally barred the government from releasing the January instalment under the scheme (Rs 1,500) in advance.