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Numbers secure, no hurry: BMC mayor election to be held only by February first week, here’s why

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections were held on January 15 and the results were announced the next day. Mumbai will have a woman mayor from the general category this time.

3 min readMumbaiJan 24, 2026 01:24 PM IST

With Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis arriving in Mumbai late Saturday night, the BMC mayor election will gain momentum. The BJP will convene a core committee meeting and will also begin a dialogue with Deputy CM and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde. (File photo)

The election for mayor in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is likely to take place in the first week of February 2026. The delay is attributed to technicalities, with the ruling parties failing to register their councillors and groups.

So far, the process of registering political parties is incomplete. The BJP with 89 councillors and the Shiv Sena with 29 councillors have not registered their respective groups, which is a mandatory exercise after the election. The BJP will begin the registration process on January 27.

Highly placed sources in the BJP said, “We are not in a hurry as we have the numbers. It is a foregone conclusion that the mayor will be from the Mahayuti. However, there is some rethink on whether the BJP and Shiv Sena should register separately or as the Mahayuti bloc.”

Arrival of Fadnavis to speed up process

With Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis set to arrive in Mumbai late Saturday night, the BMC mayor election and related power-sharing processes will gain momentum in the coming days. The BJP will first convene a core committee meeting. Alongside, it will begin a dialogue with Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde.

The elections for 227 seats in the BMC took place on January 15. The results were announced on January 16. The lottery draw for mayoral post reservation was completed on January 22. The BMC will have a woman mayor from the general category.

A BJP insider said, “We are not going to compromise on the BMC mayor post and standing committee.” The party, however, appears ready to concede the Improvements and BEST committee to its alliance partner Sena.

With an aggressive Opposition in the form of 65 Shiv Sena (UBT) councillors, 24 Congress corporators, and six from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), BJP leaders believe they cannot afford to antagonise Shinde, and have to put up a united front in the BMC.

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Speaking to media persons in Davos where he was attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Saturday, Fadnavis said, “All these speculations and theories on BMC mayor will come to an end once I return to Mumbai. We have no differences. Everything will get resolved amicably.”

Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said, “After the BMC elections, the BJP has moved ahead on the next mission – zilla parishad elections. The leaders and workers are busy with the poll campaign. The elections to 12 zilla parishads and 125 panchayat samitis are scheduled for February 5.”

The sources noted that there is no provision which mandates that the mayor should be appointed immediately after the election results. Being a pan-Maharashtra party, the BJP has taken into account multiple factors, but the entire process for the mayor appointment is not expected to go beyond the first week of February.

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