Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his family show their inked fingers after casting their votes for the municipal elections in Nagpur on Thursday. | Photo credit: ANI
With a projected population of 22 million in the urban agglomeration and 27 million in Greater Mumbai, the city has over a million voters, making the civic polls not just a local contest but a battle with implications at the state and national levels.
The BMC’s current budget sets aside ₹43,162 crore, or 58 per cent of the total expenditure, as capital expenditure, largely for infrastructure and special projects. Roads, bridges, sewerage networks, public health, education, safety, and workers’ wages and pensions account for the majority of society’s expenditure. The company’s revenues are estimated at ₹43,159.40 crore, underscoring the size of the board at stake.
The Thackeray Legacy
Since 1997, when Shiv Sena won 103 seats for the first time, the Thackeray-led party has dominated Mumbai’s civic politics. Despite internal turmoil, including Raj Thackeray’s retirement in 2006 to form the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Uddhav Thackeray managed to maintain the party’s hold on the city.
In the 2017 BMC elections, the undivided Shiv Sena won 84 seats, narrowly ahead of the BJP’s 82, allowing Uddhav Thackeray to continue ruling Mumbai. However, since March 7, 2022, the civic body has been headed by an administrator after the expiry of the corporations’ terms of office, without an elected house.
This election was a first. Estranged cousins Thackeray, Uddhav’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj’s MNS joined hands in a bid to win back the city together.
The growing footprint of the BJP
The rise of the BJP in Mumbai dates back to the early 1990s, initially as a junior partner of the Shiv Sena. By 2017, it had emerged as a serious challenger. The party built a strong base among migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other northern states, as well as among business and industrial communities.
After Bal Thackeray’s death in 2012, the BJP intensified its pressure in Mumbai. The final break with the Shiv Sena came after the 2019 parliamentary elections. In 2022, the party gained a decisive lead when Eknath Shinde split the Shiv Sena, with the Election Commission recognizing his faction as the official party. Shinde, who became Chief Minister in 2022 with the support of the BJP, is now Deputy Chief Minister in the BJP-led government.
Campaign without citizen focus
Despite Mumbai’s crumbling infrastructure and struggle to meet the standards of global cities, the campaign has rarely focused on development. For the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS, the narrative revolved around the alleged domination of non-Maharashtrians and claims that Mumbai was being “annexed” to Gujarat. The BJP, in turn, focused its campaign on warnings of “Mumbai’s Mamdanization” and accusations of Muslim dominance.
A city on the move
As India’s financial nerve centre, the engine of the Indian economy, the heart of Bollywood, a hub for industries ranging from textiles to petrochemicals, and a city defined as much by cricket, vada pav and bhelpuri as by colonial architecture and red double-decker buses, Mumbai is at a crossroads.
From islands once inhabited by Koli fishermen, through centuries of relative peace, to being handed over by the Portuguese to King Charles II of England as part of a royal dowry in 1661, the city has continually reinvented itself. As the civic poll results unfold, Mumbai is once again confronted with the question of how it will shape its future and for whom.
Published on January 16, 2026
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