BMC Elections 2026: What Is The Candidate Spending Limit Set By SEC; Details Inside

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Election Commission announced the dates for the eagerly awaited Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections along with 28 other Municipal Corporations. The elections are scheduled to be held on January 15, while the counting of votes will be done on January 16.

Apart from Mumbai, municipal corporations in major cities such as Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Pune, Nagpur, and Nashik, among others, will also go for polls. With the election dates now confirmed, the State Election Commission has also announced the maximum expenditure limits for candidates contesting the civic elections.

Candidate Expenditure Limit

For the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and ‘A’ category municipal corporations, which include Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, the expenditure cap has been fixed at Rs 15 lakh per candidate.

Candidates contesting elections in ‘B’ category municipal corporations, including Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik and Thane, is fixed at Rs 13 lakh.

In the ‘C’ category, municipal corporations such as Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Vasai-Virar, the spending limit has been set at Rs 11 lakh.

For the remaining 15 municipal corporations classified under the ‘D’ category, the maximum permissible expenditure for candidates is set at Rs 9 lakh. Additionally, according to reports, the commission has also warned that action will be taken against candidates who exceed the expenditure limit.

Key Dates for BMC Elections 2026

The nomination process will begin on December 23 and go on till December 30. The scrutiny of papers will be done on December 31, and January 2 will be the last date of withdrawal of nominations.

Symbol allocation and the final list of candidates will be published on January 3. The polling in the 29 municipal corporations spread across Maharashtra will take place on January 15, and votes will be counted the next day, i.e. on January 16.

Total Voters Across 29 Municipal Corporations

Across 29 Municipal corporations, a total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to participate in the elections, including 1.91 crore men, 1.66 crore women and 4,590 voters in the 'others' category. There are 39,147 total polling stations, of which 10,111 are located in the BMC area.

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