Mumbai, Jan. 14 -- Campaigning for the 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra formally closed at 5.30 pm on Tuesday. The civic body polls-being held in the state after a gap of four years since the last term-are being contested amid much acrimony across party lines. On polling day on Thursday, all eyes will be on Mumbai, which is seeing a three-cornered fight between the BJP-Shiv Sena, the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS and the Congress-VBA alliances. The undivided Shiv Sena held majority in the BMC, the country's richest civic body, for 26 uninterrupted years. For the Thackeray family, control of the BMC has been key to their political fortunes. For the BJP, which won 82 seats to the Shiv Sena's 84 in the last elections in 2017, control of the BMC will strengthen the party's dominance over not just the financial capital but also Maharashtra. Polling for the 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in Maharashtra's municipal corporations will begin at 7.30 am and conclude at 5.30 pm on January 15. A total of 34.8 million eligible voters will decide the fate of 15,931 candidates across the state, including 1,700 in Mumbai and 1,166 in Pune. The votes will be counted on January 16. Ahead of the polls, a short but high-decibel campaign crystallised around sharply divergent narratives that went well beyond routine civic issues. Instead of pothole-ridden roads, once a defining issue of BMC elections, the campaign in Mumbai was focused on identity politics and redevelopment anxieties. These civic elections also saw some key political realignments. The estranged Thackeray cousins joined forces after 2005 when Raj Thackeray walked out of the Shiv Sena to float the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. In western Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar got into an alliance with his uncle's Nationalist Congress Party (SP) for Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Parbhani, which have traditionally been the NCP's stronghold. Amid rumours of a merger between the two parties after the civic elections, Ajit Pawar told HT on Tuesday: "There are no permanent friends or foes in politics." The NCP has in recent days fought a spirited campaign against the BJP, with whom they are in alliance in the state government. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has been spearheading the BJP's campaign in these civic elections, said that Ajit Pawar had "breached" the agreement to not target allies. But despite the attacks and counter-attacks, Fadnavis expressed confidence about the Mahayuti winning 26 of the 29 corporations. He also clarified that the Mahayuti did not have a formula for the post of the mayor in the newly elected corporations. "The BJP will be the single-largest party, but the mayor could be from any one of the three alliance partners," he told HT. The demand for a Marathi mayor in Mumbai, a demand once largely associated with the Shiv Sena, found a broad consensus across parties. This rhetoric was absent in the 2017 elections, but in the lead-up to Thursday's polls, both the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and the Sena (UBT)-MNS combine repeatedly signalled that Mumbai should be led by a Marathi-speaking mayor, reflecting the electoral weight of "Marathi asmita (pride)". The Sena (UBT)-MNS successfully set the agenda of the campaign in Mumbai by placing the "Marathi manoos" at the core of these elections, arguing that native Marathi-speaking residents had been politically and economically sidelined. The two Thackeray cousins repeatedly cited pressure on housing, jobs and small businesses, framing these as consequences of unchecked migration and policies that, they alleged, favoured big developers and corporate interests over local communities. The Mahayuti too, in their manifesto, promised to safeguard the "safety, welfare, language and culture of the Marathi manoos," promising Marathi kala kendras, study centres for Marathi theatre, folk arts and literature, a special multiplex for Marathi cinema, and school curricula "enriched" with lessons on Mumbai's Marathi history and the sacrifices of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. All parties made a slew of populist promises. While the Mahayuti promised a 50% concession for women on BEST bus travel, the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS combine promised a Rs.1,500 monthly allowance for women domestic workers and a property tax waiver on houses up to 700 sq ft. Outside of Mumbai, the other key municipal corporations going to polls include 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....