Mumbai is set to get a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mayor, with the party unlikely to share the post with its ally, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed on Tuesday.
Nearly a fortnight after the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance emerged as the largest combine in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, uncertainty continues over who will occupy the top post in the civic body.
Speaking to reporters, Raut said the BJP was firm on retaining the mayor’s post and would not concede it to the Shinde-led Sena, despite its ally’s apparent dissatisfaction. He added that the Shinde faction would have to settle for a few other key positions in the civic body after taking up the matter with the BJP’s central leadership.
“They (the BJP) will have their mayor in Mumbai,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Leaders of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, however, have maintained that the mayor’s post should go to the Sena, particularly as 2026 marks the birth centenary of Bal Thackeray, the founder of the undivided Shiv Sena.
The BMC elections, held on January 15, produced a fractured mandate in the 227-member civic body. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, followed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) with 65 seats. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena secured 29 seats, the Congress won 24, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) bagged six seats, with smaller parties and independents accounting for the rest. No party or alliance secured an outright majority.
The division of power within the ruling alliance remains a key point of negotiation, with the mayor’s post at the centre of the political tussle in India’s richest municipal corporation.
