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This study examines how political parties in Maharashtra's municipal elections utilize diverse political narratives to communicate governance models.

June 4, 2026Open Access

Political Narratives and Public Relations Strategies in Maharashtra's Municipal Corporation Elections 2026: A Qualitative Analysis of Competing Governance Frameworks

Key Points

This study examines how political parties in Maharashtra's municipal elections utilize diverse political narratives to communicate governance models.
Analyzed political messaging during the municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra across 29 cities and 2,869 seats.
Utilized qualitative methodology to assess public relations strategies deployed by political parties.
Identified distinct governance frameworks based on developmental vs. cultural paradigms.
Mahayuti alliance emphasized infrastructure and administrative efficiency in their governance model.
Opposition alliance focused on community history and cultural continuity to frame their governance approach.
Effective political communication employs varying emotional and rational appeals tailored to specific local contexts.

Abstract

AbstractThe recent municipal corporation elections in the state of Maharashtra were conducted across 29cities with 2,869 seats available for election with 15,931 candidates vying for those seats. Thiselection provides a unique opportunity to study how parties have employed different forms ofpolitical messaging to communicate the nature of urban governance via the lens of two distinctparadigms of legitimacy (i.e., Development Paradigm vs. Cultural Paradigm). The study employsa qualitative research methodology to explore how political parties utilize different forms ofpublic relations strategies in order to frame governance as either being based on professionalexpertise that is driven by developmental objectives or as being based on cultural and historicalcontinuity. The study identifies two fundamentally different models of urban governancelegitimacy based on two different epistemologies of governance: (1) the Mahayuti alliance claimsto provide a better governance model and is focused on the importance of deliveringinfrastructure and providing administrative efficiencies; and (2) the opposition alliance states thattheir model of governance is clearly based on perpetual recognition of the history and traditionsof their local communities and providing opportunities for the urban residents to engage with oneanother through those shared values and experiences. The research reveals that effectivemunicipal political communication operates simultaneously across emotional-historical,administrative-developmental, identity-cultural, welfare-populist, and ethical-participatory registers, calibrated to reach distinct constituencies through place-specific and media-differentiated communication architectures. The study contributes to understanding how Indian municipal politics increasingly resembles state and national-level political competition insophistication while remaining embedded in hyper-local governance concerns.

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