4 min readJan 17, 2026 10:23 AM IST
First published on: Jan 16, 2026 at 05:13 PM IST
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has delivered a long-cherished goal of the BJP in Maharashtra — to take control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Though the party has ousted Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) from power in the BMC, it couldn’t achieve the dream of a majority on its own. Unlike the municipal corporations of Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik and Nagpur, voters in Mumbai have given a restrained mandate to the BJP. It needs to work in coordination with the Shinde Sena to secure coveted positions in the BMC body. So, Eknath Shinde has once again proved that the BJP can’t reduce his party to the margins.
On the other hand, Uddhav scored a political goal over Eknath Shinde as UBT has won more seats in the BMC than the Shinde Sena. Thus, even in its first-ever defeat in the BMC election since 1997, Shiv Sena (UBT) seems to have proved itself as an inheritor of Bal Thackeray’s legacy in the city. Unlike in two other strongholds of the erstwhile united Shiv Sena — Thane and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (the then Aurangabad) — Uddhav has emerged as the leader of Shiv Sena in Mumbai. Eknath Shinde has decimated UBT in Thane and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar.
Overall, the election results of 29 Municipal Corporations in the state are in line with the results of the state assembly election held in November 2024. However, in Mumbai, the alliance of the Thackeray brothers has saved the UBT. While Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) itself has failed to register impressive gains in the BMC, the ground-level alliance between workers helped in creating a narrative of a formidable electoral contest.
It also proves that Shiv Sena’s original politics of Marathi Manoos still resonates with a significant section of the population in Mumbai. In fact, since the late 1980s, it is for the first time that Thackeray’s Sena has contested the election solely on the Marathi asmita plank. When the BJP’s Pramod Mahajan forged an alliance with Bal Thackeray in 1986, the latter had become a mascot of Hindutva politics. In the 1990s, Shiv Sena turned silent on the issue of jobs and housing for Marathi people, creating space for the emergence of MNS. Now, UBT and MNS together seem to have reinvented the Marathi vote-bank in Mumbai.
Despite continuous campaigns on the issues of second-grade treatment of the Maharashtrians in Mumbai and the Marathi language in the state, the BJP strategically managed its political heft. It addressed criticisms and accommodated concerns, particularly on the issue of the imposition of Hindi in primary schools. This worked against a total Marathi consolidation. Second, unlike other municipal corporations, the BJP, in Mumbai, adopted an accommodating attitude to Shinde. As his party has the original election symbol of Shiv Sena, it was important for the BJP to keep them along. In other cities, both parties even failed to arrive at a seat-sharing arrangement. Third, the BJP has resisted the temptation of inviting the Prime Minister to Mumbai during the election period, even when Uddhav had dared Narendra Modi to campaign against him. This would have sharpened the Marathi-Gujarati divide, along with the consolidation of minority votes against the BJP. Most importantly, the BJP’s central political appeal of infra-development in Mumbai and the region has given it an incisive edge over the UBT-MNS alliance. Based on this appeal, a man from Nagpur — Devendra Fadnavis — has trumped over the insiders of Mumbai politics, the Thackeray brothers.
The writer teaches at the MIT School of Government, Pune. Views are personal
Despite continuous campaigns on the issues of second-grade treatment of the Maharashtrians in Mumbai and the Marathi language in the state, the BJP strategically managed its political heft (Source: Screenshot/X/PTI) 
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