The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have finalised their Mayoral candidates on Saturday, February 7, for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) following a decisive victory in the civic elections. Ritu Tawde of the BJP has been named the next Mayoral candidate of Mumbai, while Sanjay Gadi from the Shiv Sena Shinde faction will be the Deputy Mayor candidate. However, the post of deputy mayor will be for a period of 1.5 years.
Tawde is a corporator from ward 132, which includes parts of Ghatkopar. She has been a two-term corporator and was also the education committee chairman in the past. While Sanjay Gadi had earlier won the 2017 BMC election from Ward No. 4 as a candidate of the combined Shiv Sena. The election for the mayor and deputy mayor posts is scheduled for February 11 at the BMC headquarters.
Calling it a “historic moment,” Tawde said she was grateful to the party leadership for entrusting her with the responsibility. Satam, meanwhile, said the new dispensation would work towards making Mumbai a corruption-free city, adding that the alliance would govern with the blessings and support of Mumbaikars.
Even if the opposition fields candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the BJP–Shinde-led alliance is confident of securing both positions, backed by its numerical strength of 118 corporators in the 227-member civic House.
The decision was made public by BJP Mumbai President Amit Satam at the civic headquarters in the presence of all BJP elected corporators & senior party leaders who had gathered. He confirmed Ritu Tawde as the party's mayoral candidate.
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The BMC elections saw the BJP emerge as the largest single party, securing 89 seats in the 227-member house. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) finished as the second-largest party with 65 seats, followed by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena with 29 seats.
With 114 seats required for a majority, the alliance between the BJP (89) and Shinde’s Sena (29) has comfortably crossed the threshold with a combined 118 seats. The remaining seats were distributed among the Congress (24), MNS (6), Ajit Pawar’s NCP (3), and various other smaller parties and independents.