As BJP wins BMC qila, why the echoes of its civic poll success will travel far beyond Maharashtra
While the outcome in the Mumbai civic elections will likely allow Devendra Fadnavis keep his allies in check, it also contains a message for the regional satraps who will face the BJP in elections within a few months.
The iconic BMC building with its Gothic Victorian architecture used to be a defining symbol of aamchi Mumbai. (Photo: Amit Chakravarty)
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is not just any other civic body. The outcome of the elections to the corporation in the country’s financial capital, with an annual budget of Rs 75,000 crore, contains messages that go beyond the shores of Maharashtra.
The iconic BMC building with its Gothic Victorian architecture, and always so arresting at night when it was lit up, used to be a defining symbol of aamchi Mumbai. On Friday, as the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena, led by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, took control of the corporation, defeating Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), it was a testimony to the way that the character of Mumbai and Maharashtra has changed.
The BJP was expected to win, given that it was only two seats short of the undivided Sena back in 2017, and the BJP had consolidated its position following the split in the Sena and the NCP since then, making common cause with the breakaway factions of the Sena and the NCP led by Deputy CMs Shinde and Ajit Pawar, respectively.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is the biggest beneficiary of the BMC win that will help him strengthen his grip over the government. Since he took over as CM last year, Fadnavis’s appeal, and that of the party, has grown with his management of the coalition despite its inherent tensions and their focus on vital issues related to urban development. Along with leaders such as Yogi Adityanath and Himanta Biswa Sarma, Fadnavis is seen as the BJP’s future. His handling of the Mahayuti government has undoubtedly helped the party win the BMC and other important corporations, including Pune, which was once the fiefdom of the NCP and the Pawars.
Keeping allies in line
The BMC outcome will also allow Fadnavis keep his allies in check, even though they have helped the party to win. The Shiv Sena cut into the support base of Uddhav’s Sena (UBT), depriving him of victory. And Uddhav prevented Shinde from acquiring the strength that might have enabled him to flex his muscle within the ruling coalition. It has turned out to be Advantage BJP in more ways than one and Fadnavis finds himself with ladoos in both hands. Shinde has been contained and Ajit Pawar has been reined in, having failed to regain Pune despite joining hands with his uncle Sharad Pawar.
The BJP has conquered the BMC qila. Backed by powerful Gujaratis and the Hindi Heartland-wallahs from UP and Bihar, the party managed to craft a wider support base. Its humungous, well-oiled machinery, it goes without saying, remained, as in the past, many steps ahead of its opponents.
The BJP has overcome the setback it suffered in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, making up for it with wins that year in Haryana and Maharashtra, and then in Delhi and Bihar in 2025. Starting the year with the BMC win may give it a psychological advantage in the impending polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Kerala.
Can sub-nationalism check BJP?
Even though the BJP took hold of the BMC, the fortress did not collapse completely as some thought it might, with Uddhav’s party not too far behind the BJP. This showed that sub-nationalism represented by his “Marathi manoos” pitch was not a winning card on its own. But it also showed that issues involving Marathi pride and identity could not be dismissed outright.
So, BMC 2026 may have a message for other regional satraps. Over the years, regional outfits have used caste lineups as a way to oppose the BJP’s religious mobilisation. Others tried to use sub-nationalism as a counter to the BJP’s heady cocktail, like Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal with her own brand of Bengali asmita and M K Stalin emphasising Tamil pride by speaking against Hindi imposition and the impending delimitation exercise. But the regional parties may have to mount a narrative that has a wider appeal, particularly in the states going to the polls this year.
Shape of things to come?
The large-scale use of money and revdis that was seen in the civic body polls was arguably not seen in earlier polls. The voter has become more pragmatic, interested mainly in what she can get from parties immediately, thus diluting her stakes in the electoral process. The BMC and other corporation polls in Maharashtra have also shown, yet once again, the proclivity of politicians to change parties, shift alliances at the drop of a hat, and willingly tie up with those they were ideologically opposed to.
Is this now an irrevocable shape of things to come? For there are no ideological divides left today, except on secular and non-secular lines. At the lower levels, even those are missing.
Some believe this flexibility, for all its negative features, may help keep a diverse country together, without the many sharp ideological hardlines that divide the democratic space in other countries. Or could this be a way of finding solace when the political process goes awry?
What, however, is more clear and this was aptly summed up by a political wag: the real divide in the Indian polity today is between a ruling BJP on the fast track and the Opposition unable to mount an alternative to it. The BMC elections have only brought this home to us once again.
(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide.)
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