India, Jan. 3 -- With the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections scheduled on January 15, 2026, the political scene in the city has turned highly competitive with a four-cornered contest taking shape. Following the nomination withdrawal deadline, the battle for control of Pune's civic body is expected to be fought between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and a Congress-led alliance comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

The BJP, which has dominated Pune's politics in recent years, is contesting all 165 PMC seats with nine seats allotted to the Republican Party of India (RPI). The party has launched an aggressive campaign involving door-to-...