Mumbai Mayor Election: Nomination Process Begins February 6, Polls Likely on February 11

Mumbai is set to elect a new mayor on February 11, with the nomination process beginning on February 6, reported NDTV. Candidates can file their nominations from February 6, while the elections will happen on February 11. The announcement has intensified political activity across parties, especially within the BJP, which leads the ruling alliance in the country’s largest civic body. This year’s mayoral post has been reserved for a woman from the general category, following a lottery conducted by the state government. The decision has sparked intense lobbying within the ruling party and drawn sharp criticism from the Opposition, which has alleged that the process was structured to favour those in power.

Within the BJP, the mayoral race has highlighted internal divisions, with leaders privately describing the contest as a clash between long-time party workers and leaders who joined from other political outfits. Several women councillors are in the fray, and senior leaders say lobbying has picked up pace over the past few days. Aspirants and their supporters have been seeking meetings with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is widely seen as having the final say in the party’s candidate selection, NDTV reported.

Three names are at the centre of discussions within the BJP — Harshita Narvekar, Ritu Tawde and Sheetal Gambhir. While one faction of the Mumbai BJP is backing Ritu Tawde, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar is reportedly pushing for the candidature of his sister-in-law, Harshita Narvekar.

However, resistance has emerged from another section of the party, which argues that Narvekar, Tawde and Gambhir are not original BJP members, having joined from other parties. These leaders maintain that the mayor’s post should be given to a woman who has spent several years working within the BJP’s Mumbai organisation.

The political churn follows the announcement that Mumbai’s next mayor will be a woman from the general category, a decision taken through a draw of lots conducted by the State Urban Development Department, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, NDTV reported. The lottery system determines the reservation category for the mayor’s post — general, women, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Classes — after which eligible councillors can file nominations.

An official told NDTV that the draw was conducted for Mumbai and 28 other civic bodies in Maharashtra, where elections were held on January 15.

The outcome of the draw came as a setback for the Shiv Sena (UBT), which had hoped the mayor’s post in Mumbai would be reserved for a Scheduled Tribe woman. Both eligible women councillors in the ST category belong to the party led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Following the civic poll results last week, Thackeray had publicly said that “if God is willing,” Mumbai would get a mayor from his party. Those expectations were dashed after the draw placed the post in the general category.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) had calculated that an ST reservation could have given it a rare opportunity to reclaim the top civic post, which it held uninterrupted for 25 years from 1997, when the party was still undivided.