The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Mahayuti allies swept the Maharashtra civic elections, winning 25 of 29 municipal corporations, including the prestigious BMC. This marks a significant shift in power, ending the Thackeray family’s nearly three-decade dominance over the BMC.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Mahayuti allies swept the Maharashtra civic elections, winning 25 of 29 municipal corporations, including the prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).This marks a significant shift in power, ending the Thackeray family’s nearly three-decade dominance over the BMC.
The Mahayuti alliance crossed the majority mark of 114 in the 227-member BMC, securing 118 seats. BJP emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats. Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) won 29 seats.Shiv Sena (UBT) secured 65 seats and led the opposition. Congress won 24 seats. AIMIM made notable inroads with 8 seats in Mumbai and 114 statewide; MNS won 6 seats.The BJP-led coalition also dominated other key urban centres. In Pune BJP achieved a sweep with 123 seats, significantly outperforming the combined NCP factions (25 seats). In Nagpur BJP won 102 seats in its stronghold, while the Congress secured 34.
In Thane, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena maintained its dominance, winning 75 of 131 seats, while in Navi Mumbai BJP clinched the body for the first time with 65 seats.Opposition, including Uddhav Thackeray and Rahul Gandhi, alleged “gross mismanagement” and “murder of democracy”, citing missing voters, indelible ink controversy, and misuse of power.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the outcome an endorsement of the BJP’s development agenda, while opposition leaders questioned the conduct of the polls and alleged misuse of power.Prime Minister hailed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Mahayuti’s victory in the Maharashtra civic body polls, stating that the party is winning in places once considered impossible to gain support.
During a public meeting in West Bengal’s Malda, Prime Minister Modi attributed the BJP’s victories in the BMC polls and the Thiruvananthapuram local body elections in Kerala to young voters’ trust in the BJP’s ‘development model’.He said, “The results of the urban local body elections in Maharashtra were announced yesterday. The BJP has achieved a historic victory in these elections. In particular, the BJP has secured a record victory for the first time in Mumbai, in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), one of the world’s largest municipal corporations, which is a significant development in Maharashtra politics. A few days ago, the BJP also elected its first mayor in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala.
This shows that even in places where winning elections was once considered impossible for the BJP, the party is now receiving unprecedented support.”Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the BJP has achieved an “unprecedented victory” and emerged as the “single-largest party” in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.”I am very happy that the Bharatiya Janata Party has achieved an unprecedented victory in Maharashtra. The Bharatiya Janata Party and our alliance partners have secured a clear majority in about 25 of the 29 places, including Mumbai. The BJP has emerged as the single-largest party, and I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the people of Maharashtra and all BJP workers”. CM Fadnavis said the results show the people of Maharashtra’s faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and acceptance of the development agenda pursued by the BJP-led NDA government in Maharashtra.”This victory is a testament to Maharashtra’s faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This victory is the result of the hard work of all our workers, especially an endorsement by the people of the development agenda we have pursued…,” Fadnavis told ANI.Union Minister Nitin Gadkari also said that the NDA did not engage in politics based on caste or religion and pursued development with “complete honesty”.”The people have chosen us for 5 years. The trust and love of the people are our greatest strength. We did not engage in politics based on caste, religion, or language. We pursued development with complete honesty and did not discriminate in development in any way…,” Gadkari told reporters.According to Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and other BJP leaders, the Yuti recorded such a sweeping victory in the state civic polls due to the “development agenda”.
