In a first since the inception of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the BJP is set to take charge of the country’s richest municipal corporation as it emerged as the single largest party in the civic elections that concluded on Friday. Bettering its performance from the previous polls when it held 82 seats, the BJP on Friday swept 89 of the 227 seats while its ally Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won 29 seats. The BJP’s historic victory in the civic polls marks the end of the undivided Shiv Sena’s dominance over Mumbai’s municipal body.
With the Shiv Sena (UBT) ousted from power after nearly 25 years, the BMC House is poised to witness a significant shake-up. While the final candidate is yet to be finalised, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will now helm the mayoral seat. Having managed to win 65 seats or 27.52 per cent of the winning vote share, meanwhile, the Sena UBT will take control as the principal opposition with several former mayors and veteran corporators of the Sena (UBT) set to shift to the opposition benches.
Speaking to The Indian Express about the shift, Kishori Pednekar, Sena UBT candidate who was Mumbai’s outgoing mayor when the House dissolved in 2022 and managed to retain her home turf seat 199 for the fourth term, said that with a significant vote share, the party’s focus will continue on ‘doing good work’ as a strong opposition. “We have done a lot of good work in the past 25 years. Now, we will continue doing that in the opposition where we will have a lot of work. The BJP-Shinde Sena alliance has everything in their control including the funds. As a strong opposition, we will fight and flag objections over their wrongdoings.”
Pednekar said that the decision to ascertain the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the civic House will be made in a meeting on Tuesday. “What about the BJP-Shinde Sena alliance? They have still not been able to determine a face for the post of mayor. They are afraid that their corporators will switch sides,” said Pednekar.
Sena UBT’s old hand Vishakha Raut, former mayor between 1997 and 1998, said, “Even though the ruling side may have higher numbers, we will not let them undertake wasteful expenditure. While we will not block projects which are beneficial for Mumbai, we will be watchful and not tolerate any discrepancy in expenditure. If money is allocated for wasteful projects like the beautification project initiated a few years ago, we will not side with them.”
On Friday, Raut was re-elected as corporator from 191 ward in a fourth term, defeating Shinde Sena’s Priya Gurav.
Former mayor between 1996 and 1997, Sena (UBT)’s Milind Vaidya, who was re-elected as a corporator for a sixth term on Friday, said that as the opposition, the focus will lie in investigating the utilisation of funds, which eluded Sena UBT corporators over the past few years. “I have served as a corporator since 1992 and understand the system well. In the past years, we have seen that wards where our Sena (UBT) corporators were in power were completely neglected. Even though the Shinde Sena corporators were being doled out Rs 3-4 crore for works, we experienced bias and received no funding. Politics aside, this should not have happened as it concerns the development on the local level. This bias has really hurt us and upon taking charge in the opposition, we will find out how our funds were utilised.”
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Echoing Vaidya, senior Sena (UBT) party leader and corporator Sachin Padwal, who defeated heavyweight candidate Nana Ambole in ward 182, said, “Having remained under the administrator’s rule for nearly four years now, we will call for an enquiry of the expenditure, decisions and policy changes implemented by them. As a strong opposition, our role will be to prevent them from making any abrupt decision.”
Meanwhile, while former mayor from Sena UBT, Shraddha Jadhav, who retained her seat 202, maintained that decision on proceedings in the opposition will be taken after the House is constituted, former deputy mayor in 2017 polls, Hemangi Worlikar, who won from ward 193, said, “When we come together, we will formulate the agenda as the opposition according to our party’s instruction. For now, my focus is to work on the ground level in my ward and address concerns of the people.”
Across the line, in the ruling fold
Across the line, several heavyweights and experienced corporators — who previously served in the opposition — have now sprung to power, after the decisive win.
Amongst them is Alka Kerkar, a three time corporator from BJP, who served as the deputy mayor between 2012 and 2017. “There are several policies pertaining to parking, hawkers issue, markets amongst matters which have to be evaluated and updated. Once the house is formulated, we will take decisions on these fronts. Currently, these projects are only half implemented and we need some stronger policies in place,” said Kerkar, on the question of assuming duties on the ruling front. Kerkar is a three-time corporator with the BJP, who won from ward 98 in the long awaited polls on Friday.
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Following his victory, BJP’s Makarand Narvekar, brother of Rahul Narvekar, the Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, who retained his seat of 226 in A ward said on Friday, “The people of Colaba have made it clear that they will not be misled by the opposition’s empty promises. Now, our focus will remain on development-centric politics and we will accelerate the pace of development in Colaba with a focus on roads, water supply, beautification and infrastructure.”
