Uddhav-Raj reunion fails to dampen saffron surge as Maha Yuti sweeps municipal polls in Maharashtra

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party ended decades of Thackeray-family dominance in BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest municipal corporation, by emerging as the single largest party in the urban local body, and looks all set to have its Mayor for the first time with support from its ally Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

Despite joining hands, the Thackeray cousins — Uddhav, the Shiv Sena (UBT) head and Raj, the MNS president — could not stop the BJP’s determined onslaught in India’s financial capital, led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The only silver lining for the Thackerays was Eknath Shinde’s sub-par performance, with the deputy CM’s party ending up in a poor third place in the BMC.

Fadnavis, the third-time CM of Maharashtra, was also able to cut his second deputy CM, Ajit Pawar, to size.

In the Pawar family stronghold of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, the BJP will remain the dominant political force, despite estranged factions - Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) - joining hands to keep the BJP at bay.

For the opposition, especially the Congress, the outcome of the urban local bodies brought no respite from the electoral drought faced by the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in the 2024 Vidhan Sabha polls.

With the BJP all set to have its Mayor in the BMC for the first time, a post that had eluded the party since its formation, it's the biggest New Year gift from Fadnavis to prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP’s chief strategist Amit Shah, who had dreamt of establishing a triple-engine sarkar in Mumbai.

"This is maha vijay...all records are broken," Fadnavis said.

"We will have a Maha Yuti and a BJP Mayor in Mumbai," said Legislative Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar.

In the process, Fadnavis ended the quarter-of-a-century rule as the reunion did not bring the desired results for the cousins in the birth centenary year of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, but they survived to fight another day.

However, if one compares Shinde and Uddhav, the latter won more seats - in what comes as an alarm bell for the man who split the Shiv Sena with BJP’s help.

In the city where the Congress was born, the grand old party has been pushed to the brink.

In BMC, which has 227 electoral wards, the BJP has emerged as the No 1 party with winning/leading 90 seats of details available from 211 seats. BJP’s ally Shiv Sena managed 28 seats. NCP, which contested separately, won just three seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) got 57 seats, MNS nine and NCP (SP) one. The Congress has won 15 seats.

Like in Mumbai, the reunification of Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) does not seem to work as the alliance made at the last minute suffered a major blow in Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad. In Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, which have 165 and 128 seats, respectively, the BJP won 90-plus and 85-plus against the NCP-NCP (SP) alliance with a combined strength of 14 and 34, respectively.

In Thane, the bastion of Shinde, the Shiv Sena got 38 seats and BJP 24 of the total 131 seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) managed just two seats. However, while Shinde will have its Mayor in Thane, he could not make much inroads in Navi Mumbai, where state forest minister Ganesh Naik called the shots -with the BJP winning 66 seats and Shiv Sena 42.

As far as the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is concerned, it has won 50 plus seats in 11 cities including Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, where it is leading in 16 seats. Other places where it has opened accounts include Mumbai, Thane, Dhule, Amravati and Jalna.

In Nagpur, the hometown of Fadnavis, the BJP has crossed 100 seats.

The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has won four seats each in Nanded, Latur and Akola.