Celebrations after BJP wins Delhi polls
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: With Delhi being captured in a saffron surge, the BJP will go all guns blazing in the financial capital of Mumbai.
Known as ‘Urbs Prima in Indis’, Mumbai is home to who’s who of India - and has high-rises and slums, rich and poor and a big middle-class population.
To have a Mayor in the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is a dream that remains unfulfilled for the BJP, which is now pursuing the “triple-engine sarkar” politics.
The polls to the municipal corporation and municipal councils have not been held in Maharashtra for long because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a bunch of petitions in the Supreme Court on OBC reservation and ward delimitation.
The elections to 29 corporations which includes big cities including Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nagpur, Amravati, Kolhapur are expected to be held later this year.
Mumbai is very important because it is the richest civic body of Asia - and it would see a keen contest between BJP-led MahaYuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Last week, the BMC presented a whopping Rs 74,427 crore budget for the financial year 2025-26. The total BMC reserves stand at Rs 81,744.42 crore. Such financials are bigger than that of some small states in India.
The BMC has been divided into seven zones which have 3 to 5 wards each. In total, Mumbai has been divided into 24 administrative wards which are further divided into 227 civic electoral wards or constituencies.
For more than quarter of a century, the undivided Balasaheb Thackeray-founded Shiv Sena had been controlling the BMC. In fact, the Shiv Sena has been ruling the civic body since 1985 except for a period between 1992-1996.
The last five-year term of the BMC - elected in 2017 ended on 7 March, 2022 - and there is no general body - the BMC’s Municipal Commissioner acts as an state government-appointed Administrator.
For Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray retaining BMC is a major task, however, he would face a massive challenge from the BJP and its allies Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Besides, Thackeray has decided to go alone and there would not be any truck with the MVA allies Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) in Mumbai.
The BMC covers two districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban - which has six Lok Sabha seats and 36 Vidhan Sabha seats.
In the Lok Sabha elections, of the six seats, the MVA-I.N.D.I.A. opposition bloc won four seats (Congress - 1, Shiv Sena (UBT) - 3) while the MahaYuti-NDA managed two seats (BJP 1, Shiv Sena -1).
In the Assembly polls, BJP-led MahaYuti got a stronghold over Mumbai, winning 22 of the 36 seats. For MahaYuti, the BJP won 15 seats, Shiv Sena six and NCP one. As far as Maha Vikas Aghadi is concerned, Shiv Sena (UBT) won 10 seats and the Congress three.Samajwadi Party (SP) secured one win.
After the 2017 BMC polls, the Shiv Sena leads the tally with 84, followed by BJP (82), Congress (31), NCP (9), MNS (7) and others (14). The difference between the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP was just two seats in the last elections - but the Sena split has changed equations.
In the 2012 polls, Shiv Sena won 75 seats followed by BJP (31), Congress (52), NCP (7), MNS (27), SP (9) and others (32).