Maharashtra will hold local body elections on Monday, December 1, 2025. Voting is scheduled in 242 municipal councils and 46 nagar panchayats. This is the first phase of elections ordered by the Supreme Court. Some elections in Thane, Pune, and Ahilyanagar were postponed to December 20 because of court appeals against election officer decisions. The State Election Commission (SEC) announced this on November 29 after finding irregularities in nomination withdrawals and symbol allocation. Appeals filed after November 22 affected these procedures, making some allocations illegal. Hence, those elections are stayed until further notice. Campaigning ends at 10 p.m. on December 1, and no election ads are allowed on voting day as per the Media Regulation and Advertisement Certification Order, 2025. The December 2 polls will show if the BJP-led coalition’s massive 2024 assembly win will carry to local governance or if opposition parties can challenge them. Vote counting will happen on December 3. A total of 6,859 member seats and 288 presidents will be decided by over 1.07 crore voters at 13,355 polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used with over 66,000 staff managing the process. Reservations include 3,492 seats for women, 895 for Scheduled Castes, 338 for Scheduled Tribes, and 1,821 for Other Backward Classes. Candidate spend limits are set at ₹15 lakh for president posts and ₹12 lakh for member posts. More than 51,000 nominations were received. The elections cover 27 councils in Konkan, 59 in Nashik division, 60 in Pune division, and 55 in Nagpur division. The political battle pits the Mahayuti alliance (BJP, Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar’s NCP) against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP), and Congress). BJP already secured 100 councillors and 3 president posts unopposed. Some local criticisms surfaced, like in Nanded where the NCP questioned BJP’s six candidates from one family. Opposition parties demanded election postponement citing voter list issues with duplicates and bogus entries. The Election Commission of India responded by marking suspected duplicates and launching a voter info app. These elections are part of a Supreme Court deadline to finish all local polls by January 31, 2026. Remaining elections include 29 municipal corporations, 32 zilla parishads, and 336 panchayat samitis. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls, last held in 2017, are expected mid-January.