BJP signals intent to wrest control of BMC in 2022, threatens to expose Sena's corruption

Stepping up its attack on the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, BJP on Tuesday declared its intention to wrest control of the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in 2022 and elect its own Mayor. In a statement, BJP MLA Ram Kadam stated that his party would now stake claim for the Leader of Opposition post in the BMC. In a veiled threat to the Shiv Sena, he warned that BJP would expose all the corruption scandals in the BMC. At present, the Sena is in power in the BMC having its own Mayor Kishori Pednekar.  

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The 2017 BMC polls

BMC is considered as Asia’s richest civic body with an annual budget of nearly Rs.37,000 crore. Shiv Sena has been a formidable force in the civic elections even when NCP-Congress was in power in the state. In the 2017 civic polls, BJP and Shiv Sena contested separately as they could not agree to the seat-sharing formula. Reportedly, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had threatened to pull out from the BJP government both in Maharashtra as well as the Centre at that juncture.

Thus, the 2017 BMC election became a prestige battle for the Sena and BJP. The results brought in more cheer for BJP than the Sena as the former secured 82 seats, an increase of 51 seats from the previous election. Moreover, the Shiv Sena fell way short of the majority winning just 84 seats. On the other hand, Congress, NCP, and MNS won 31, 7 and 6 seats respectively. After hectic negotiations, BJP decided not to challenge the Sena on the Mayor’s position.  

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Shiv Sena consolidates its position

While the divide between the two allies continued to grow over the years, the Sena consolidated its position in the BMC when all 6 winning candidates of the MNS joined the party. After the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government comprising Sena, NCP, and Congress, BJP lost the sole BMC by-election that took place. In the bypoll, Shiv Sena's Vithhal Lokare beat Dinesh Panchal of BJP by a margin of 1,385 votes. 

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