The Mahayuti will fight as one front in the city, but unity beyond Mumbai remains uncertain. The move clearly shows that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena want to avoid splitting votes and to take on the Thackeray cousins, who are expected to focus on the emotive Marathi identity issue, which will play a key role in the polls.
Party leaders close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have confirmed that the BJP, Shinde Sena, and Ajit Pawar-headed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will be allied for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
On Wednesday, speaking to a group of reporters in Mumbai, a veteran Maharashtra BJP leader said, on the condition of anonymity, “For the BMC poll, the Mahayuti will contest as one united front.”
Elections to the BMC, 28 other municipal corporations and other local bodies are expected to take place before January 31, 2026, as per the Supreme Court’s deadline. The last BMC election was held in 2017, and corporators’ five-year term ended in 2022.
In 2017, the undivided Shiv Sena had bagged 84 seats in the BMC, just two more than the BJP’s tally.
For more than 25 years, Shiv Sena (undivided) and BJP had been ruling the BMC. However, in 2017, the saffron alliance came to an end, and both parties contested separately.
In 2022, a split was engineered by Shinde, and more than half of Uddhav Thackeray`s corporators joined the new faction.
Now, the BJP isn’t leaving any stone unturned to meet its long-term goal of wielding power single-handedly in Asia’s richest civic body.
Mission 100-plus
The BJP leadership has made it clear that the development, not the Marathi language row, would be its agenda for the civic election. The senior leader maintained that the party expects to win 100 seats, and the number might increase depending on how many seats it gets to contest.
Mayor’s post
BJP leaders stunned everyone with a statement that nothing had been decided by the party on who would stake a claim on the coveted mayor’s post.
“Nothing has been decided about the mayoral post. One cannot rule out a mayor from Shinde’s camp, too,” the BJP leader said, claiming that for now, winning Mumbai was the goal, and the candidate for the mayor’s post could be decided after the elections.
Thane situation
The BJP has put the ball in Shinde’s court regarding whether to contest as an ally or go solo for the Thane Municipal Corporation poll.
Speaking about municipal corporations, especially that of Thane, a city known to be Shinde’s bastion, the BJP leader admitted there was ambiguity on whether both parties would contest as allies or separately. “We have left it to Shinde to assess which is the better option. Whatever decision Shinde takes, we will act accordingly,” the BJP leader said during the candid conversation.
Errors, but no bogus voting
The state leadership of the BJP is of the opinion that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are trying to spin a narrative by raising doubts over the electoral rolls. There are certainly problems, such as missing names, duplications, and factual mistakes in the voter lists. “But, these have been there for a long time. I have personally demanded a complete revision of the electoral rolls. But the Opposition is levelling charges that the BJP is doing this for its own gain. It is completely wrong and is being done to spread a narrative. Let the Opposition come out with cases where people have voted at two places at a time. Also, how many objections did the Opposition make on voting day and after the elections? I am sure the Opposition has not taken any efforts and is now levelling charges as it has no other issue to raise,” the leader added.
