Thane Civic Polls Row: Opposition Alleges Bias As Dozens Of Nomination Papers Rejected

Controversy has erupted ahead of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) elections as opposition parties — led by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Congress, Sharad Pawar NCP, Shiv Sena UBT) — have accused the Thane Municipal Commissioner and election officials of deliberate bias in rejecting nomination papers of several candidates, particularly from non-ruling camps.

The TMC polls, scheduled for January 18, 2026, saw the nomination window close on December 31. According to opposition leaders, over 40 nomination forms, mostly from MVA candidates contesting in key wards across Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan-Dombivli and surrounding areas, were rejected on technical grounds such as “incomplete affidavits”, “minor discrepancies in voter IDs”, “missing caste certificates” or “improper formatting”. The rejected candidates include prominent names from the Congress and UBT Shiv Sena, while similar issues in BJP and Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena forms were reportedly overlooked or waived.

MVA spokesperson and senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar alleged a “concerted effort to tilt the playing field” in favour of the ruling Mahayuti alliance. “This is not administrative diligence; this is political engineering. The same officials who accepted incomplete papers from ruling candidates are now rejecting ours on flimsy pretexts,” he said at a press conference outside the TMC headquarters.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab echoed the charge, claiming that in at least 15 wards, opposition candidates were asked to resubmit forms after minor corrections while ruling alliance hopefuls were cleared on the spot. “We have video evidence of differential treatment. This is a clear violation of the Election Commission’s guidelines on fair play,” Parab stated.

The Thane Municipal Commissioner’s office defended the rejections, insisting that all decisions were taken strictly as per the Representation of the People Act and Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act. “Scrutiny was uniform and transparent. Candidates were given reasonable opportunity to rectify genuine errors where possible,” an official spokesperson said.

The opposition has filed complaints with the State Election Commission (SEC) and plans to approach the Bombay High Court if the SEC does not intervene. They have demanded the immediate reinstatement of rejected nominations or fresh scrutiny under neutral observers.

With campaigning set to begin in earnest, the row has intensified political temperature in Maharashtra’s largest municipal corporation by area, which governs over 18 lakh voters across 130+ wards. Analysts say the controversy could hurt the Mahayuti’s image of administrative fairness ahead of the civic body polls, which many view as a semi-final round before the 2027 assembly elections.