Mumbai, Jan 16 : Breaking the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP on Friday emerged as the single largest party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, and also triumphed in Pune, where it made mincemeat of the alliance of NCP factions.
The BJP-led alliance was set to bag around 125 of 227 seats in BMC, which is India’s richest civic body, whose budget for 2025-26 is a whopping Rs 74,427 crore.
Counting of votes for elections to Mumbai and 28 other municipal corporations, including Pune, was held on Friday, a day after the polling saw a 54.77 per cent turnout.
Coupled with a decent performance by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the BJP is now in the driver’s seat to govern the cash-rich civic body.
The high-stakes battle for BMC saw the Thackeray cousins reunite after two decades, only to see their hopes dashed as the results announced so far indicated.
In Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation polls, the BJP is heading towards a massive victory, way ahead of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NCP (SP) alliance.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has emerged as the man of the moment, with the BJP under his leadership surpassing its previous high of 82 seats in the 2017 BMC elections.
The success of BJP’s ‘Mission Mumbai’ has now firmly established it as the key political force in the financial capital.
The result marks a significant shift in Mumbai’s power structure. For years, the BMC was considered the invincible fortress of the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
With the BJP’s victory, the narrative of Mumbai politics has moved from the traditional identity-based ‘Marathi asmita’ to a mandate for the BJP’s plank of ‘vikas’ (development) and urban infrastructure.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane said the BJP and Shiv Sena’s strong showing in the Mumbai civic polls amounted to a clear mandate for its Hindutva pitch during the campaign, as the alliance surged ahead in the race.
“Jo Hindu ki baat karega wo Maharashra pe raj karenga (Those who speak for Hindu interests will rule Maharashtra.),” Rane posted on X.
Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, was elected a corporator in the Jalna Municipal Corporation, winning the elections as an independent candidate.
In Nagpur, home turf of CM Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, counting trends and results for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation suggest a near-repeat of the 2017 results, leaving the Congress struggling to make significant inroads despite an aggressive campaign.
The BJP is on course to surpass the 2017 tally of 108 seats in the 151-member Nagpur civic body.
The Congress won elections to the Latur Municipal Corporation, bagging a clear majority with over 40 seats in the 70-member body, leaving the BJP a distant second.
In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunited last month even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Elections to the 29 municipal corporations were held on January 15 after a gap of several years, with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.
Voting took place on January 15 in these municipal corporations: Mumbai, 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. (Agencies)
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