BMC polls: Thackeray cousins aim to ride on 'Marathi manoos' pitch but must face BJP's full might

Mumbai: The Thackerays may have invoked the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement and reiterated the Centre’s threat to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra, the cousins - Uddhav and Raj — would have to face BJP’s election management machinery as they try to maintain control over the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body of India and one of the biggest in Asia.

Since April this year, when Uddhav, the chief of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Raj, the founder-president of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, spoke about burying the hatchet, the brothers have spoken about Marathi-manoos (people), Marathi-asmita (pride) and Marathi-bhasha (language).

The 2025 re-union of the Thackeray-family has been an important chapter in Maharashtra politics, but challenges are going to mount for them in the run up to the January 15 elections of BMC, which spread in two districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban, across 24 administrative wards and 227 municipal seats.

The metropolis accounts major portion of India's international trade and government revenue, from being one of the foremost centers of education, science and technological research and advancement

It is also pertinent to note that Mumbai's all-round growth owed a lot to the early development of the system of local government under British rule.

The BMC has its own importance as its budget of Rs 75,427 crore (for the year 2025-25) is than the annual budget of Mizoram (Rs 15,043 crore), Sikkim (Rs 16,196 crore) Nagaland (Rs 24,699 crore), Manipur (Rs 29,988 crore), Meghalaya (30,003 crore), Tripura (32,423 crore) and Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 39,842 crore). It is also higher than Goa (Rs 28,162 crore) and Himachal Pradesh (Rs 58,514 crore).

Earlier this week, when Uddhav and Raj announced their electoral tie-up - there were two major takeaways.

Uddhav, a former chief minister, invoked the legacy of his grandfather and father. “Our grandfather Prabodhankar Thackeray was a legendary social reformer and writer and a pillar of the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement. My father Balasaheb Thackeray and my uncle Shrikant Thackeray played a key role in ensuring that Mumbai remained part of Maharashtra,” he said.

Raj, on the other hand, made it clear: “The Mayor of Mumbai will be a Marathi and from us.”

Ever since, the BJP split with Shiv Sena with the help of now Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who now commands the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and the iconic dhanushya-baan (bow and arrow) symbol, the BJP has repeated that the next Mayor would be from the Maha Yuti.

In Mumbai, the BJP has an electoral alliance with Shiv Sena, however, so far, any arrangement with Ajit Pawar-led NCP has not been worked out.

On the other hand, the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS will contest in alliance and is out of the ambit of the Maha Vikas Aghadi as the Congress had reservations over Raj’s inclusion into the opposition grouping. Both the Thackerays and Congress are keen that NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar should join them.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who calls the shots for the BJP and Maha Yuti, in back to back statements, has set the tone when he lashed out at the Thackeray cousins.

“Their track record is of corruption and self-interest. Their alliance is for their own political survival and it will not make any significant political difference. Maha Yuti’s fight is not for the Mayor’s post but for the welfare and development of Mumbaikars, the senior BJP leader said the BJP led alliance would expose how the BMC was allegedly looted during the Covid-19 pandemic. We aim to free the civic body from the clutches of corruption,” he said.

The undivided Shiv Sena has controlled the BMC at a stretch for 25 long years.

Post June-July 2022, the Maharashtra politics have changed and the BMC polls would have a bearing.

Shinde, who is now deputy chief minister, has managed to ensure that the majority of the former sitting corporators of the BMC joined him.

The last five-year term of the BMC - elected in 2017 ended on 7 March, 2022 - and there is no general body and Mayor - the BMC’s Municipal Commissioner acts as an state government-appointed Administrator.