Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Election: Vasai-Virar voters to get 25% discount

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 15, Jan 2026, 12:29 pm IST | UPDATED: 15, Jan 2026, 12:29 pm IST

As the voting is underway, the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVMC) on Thursday announced a reward for citizens who are exercising their vote in civic polls on January 15, offering a 25 per cent discount on hair-cutting services at salons.

The VVMC has partnered with the Vasai Hairdressers Association to offer a special incentive. Any citizen who shows their inked finger at participating salons within the municipal limits will be eligible for a 25% discount on hair-cutting services, according to a release issued by the civic body.

In the meantime, the voting in 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra underway on Thursday with spotlight on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is locked in an intense battle with the reunited Thackeray cousins for control of India's largest and richest civic body.

Polling for 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in these municipal corporations began amid tight security at 7.30 am and will conclude at 5.30 pm. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates.

In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whose annual budget is over Rs 74, 400 crore, 1,700 candidates are vying for 227 seats in elections being held after nine years, after a four-year delay.

More than 25,000 police personnel have been deployed across Mumbai to oversee elections. Except for Mumbai, the other urban bodies have multi-member wards. Vote count will take place on January 16.

These are the first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena when Eknath Shinde, now Deputy Chief Minister, broke away with a majority of the party’s MLAs and allied with the BJP to become the chief minister. The undivided Shiv Sena held sway over India's richest civic body for 25 years (1997-2022).

In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, who head Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS, respectively, reunited last month after two decades in their bid to consolidate Marathi votes even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The Congress, once a formidable political force in Maharashtra, has asserted its presence in Mumbai by stepping out of the shadow of its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies - Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP).

Voting is underway in the following municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.