The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance kept up its winning streak in Maharashtra by bagging as many as 207 of the 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayat in the just-concluded elections. For the BJP, which won 117 of the president posts, it was further consolidation of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s leadership of the three-way alliance with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar. Shinde’s claim of being the ‘real’ Shiv Sena was also strengthened, having won 53 posts compared to just nine by the Uddhav Thackeray faction. The BJP has demonstrated it has a strong base even in the rural regions of the state. On the other hand, the Congress, which once ruled Maharashtra for decades, has been decimated to just 28 of the 44 local bodies won by its Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. The party’s hopes of reversing its fortunes after the drubbing in the assembly polls last year have been belied.
These results will give a leg-up to the Mahayuti in the city corporation elections on January 15. The big prize is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the richest local body in the country with a 2025-26 budget of ₹74,000 crore. BMC elections have not been held since 2022, when the last five-year term got over. While the official reasons for the delay are delimitation of wards and disputes over seat reservation, the Mahayuti has played along. Elections in 2022 would have suited the Uddhav Sena, which then held the high moral ground after Shinde had exited the party and brought down the Uddhav-Congress government.
It is now an uphill task for both Uddhav Sena and the Congress. Uddhav is making a last-ditch effort to get Mumbai, a city it had ruled for long. Stepping back to the time-tested son-of-the-soil pitch, he has forged an alliance with his wily-but-unsuccessful cousin, Raj Thackeray, hoping the ‘Thackeray’ brand will see them through. The Congress has decided to go it alone. With the Thackerays having joined forces, the alliance is seen as an anti-immigrant front that will not be acceptable to its large Hindi-speaking base in the city. The Congress is also seeking to rebuild its organisation that was eroded partly by alliance politics. There are some googlies, too. Shinde, whom the BJP expected to be a flash in the pan, retains some strength. All of this sets the stage for possible surprises after January 15.