The ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra has finalised its seat-sharing arrangement for the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, ending weeks of negotiations. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest on 137 seats, while its ally, the Shiv Sena, will field candidates in 90 wards.
Seat-Sharing Formula and Campaign Strategy
Mumbai BJP president Ameet Bhaskar Satam announced the agreement on Monday. He confirmed that the alliance has reached a consensus on all 227 seats in the country's richest civic body. "BJP-Shiv Sena Mahayuti's discussions have come to an end. We had arrived at a consensus for 207 seats earlier. After arriving at a consensus on all 227 seats, the BJP will contest 137 seats, and the Shiv Sena will contest 90," Satam stated.
He further added that allied parties within the Mahayuti fold would be accommodated within the quotas of the two main partners. Both parties are expected to file their nomination papers starting Tuesday. Satam also revealed plans for joint campaigning in the coming days to present a united front.
NCP's Focus on Pune, Not Mumbai
Notably, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, which is also part of the ruling Mahayuti at the state level, is not part of this Mumbai arrangement. Instead, the NCP has sealed an alliance with the rival NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction for the upcoming elections to the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations.
NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar explained that the decision for an alliance in Pune was driven by local party workers' sentiments, especially after the exit of the party's Pune unit chief. The Pawar clan considers the Pune region, a hub of IT and industrial units, a crucial political bastion.
Opposition MVA's Preparations and Poll Schedule
On the opposition front, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has also been finalising its strategy. Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal earlier announced that the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) would contest 62 seats under the alliance umbrella for the BMC polls. Sapkal downplayed the importance of seat-sharing, framing the contest as a convergence of ideas rather than a mere power struggle.
The stage is now set for the high-stakes battle. The Maharashtra State Election Commission has announced that polling for Mumbai's 227 wards will be held on January 15. The counting of votes is scheduled for the very next day, January 16.
