MUMBAI: According to an official communication, the Maharashtra government has declared January 15, 2026, as a public holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act, to facilitate local body elections.
This public holiday declaration applies to 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban districts under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which will witness polls to be held after nearly eight years.
Notably, this holiday wasn’t part of the 24 public holidays for 2026 previously announced by the state government. “This public holiday is only applicable to the following local government bodies elections jurisdiction,” according to a govt. release.
Typically, RBI-administered markets, including government bonds, call, triparty repo, and foreign exchange markets, are shut on holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act. However, the Reserve Bank of India has not yet communicated or announced a holiday, and January 15 is not listed as a holiday in Mumbai’s RBI holiday matrix. It is likely that the announcement may be made in the next few days, taking into account, the state government’s circular.
The State Election Commission (SEC) announced that the election schedule for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra will take place in a single phase on January 15. The counting of votes and results for the BMC election will be announced on Friday, January 16.
The nomination procedure for elections to the BMC, Asia’s largest civic body with a budget of more than ₹74,000 crore for 2025-26, began on December 23, 2025.
The candidates were allowed to submit their applications until December 30, 2025. The deadline for withdrawing submissions was January 2, and the final list of candidates was announced on January 3.
A total of 1,03,44,315 persons are eligible to vote in the BMC election, including 55,16,707 male voters, 48,26,509 female voters, and 1,099 other voters.
In the 2017 civic elections, the undivided Shiv Sena had won 84 seats, followed by the BJP.
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