After the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections, the names of the members of the Standing Committee, Education Committee and Reform Committee have been announced. Mayor Ritu Tawde officially released the list, in which 26 members each have been selected in the Permanent and Reform Committee and 22 members in the Education Committee. With this announcement, the stir in political circles has intensified.

Standing Committee and Reform Committee are counted among the most influential units of BMC, where financial and development related decisions are taken. The Education Committee includes 22 members, who will take decisions related to schools and educational policies. Immediately after the announcement of the names by the Mayor, discussions on equations started within the parties.

Thackeray faction angry with appointment of BMC committee members

There has been news of a tussle between Thackeray group’s Shiv Sena regarding committee appointments. There has been resentment among some senior members due to not getting a place in the standing committee. A warning has also been given to resign from the Improvement Committee, due to which internal dissatisfaction has come to the fore.

Questions have been raised on the selection process as the sons of some leaders from the East and West suburbs were not included in the committee. According to sources, names of Vishakha Raut, Milind Vaidya and sons of some MLAs and MPs were in discussion. There is disagreement within the party regarding this.

Names of Standing Committee members

Shraddha Jadhav, Ramakant Rahate, Lakshmi Bhatia, Deepmala Bade, Meenakshi Patankar, Yashodhar Phanse and Jagadish Thaivalapil have been included from Shiv Sena Thackeray faction. There has been both support and opposition within the organization regarding these names.

While the standing committee from other parties includes BJP’s Ganesh Dattaram Khankar, Prabhakar Shinde, Rakhi Jadhav, Makrand Narvekar, Suresh Jha, Sheetal Gambhir, Prakash Darekar, Preeti Satam, Tejendra Singh Teja and Harish Bangirde. Amey Gole, Yamini Jadhav and Anjali Naik have got seats from Shiv Sena Shinde faction, while Shahida Khan is from NCP.

Yashwant Killedar from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Ajanta Yadav, Aksraf Azmi and Tulip Miranda from Congress have got the opportunity. Vijay Ubale from AIMIM has been included in the standing committee. This has ensured multi-party representation in the committee.

Reforms, Education and BEST Committee

The reform committee includes BJP’s Prakash Gangadhare, Alka Kerkar, Sharma Chittaranjan, Mahadev Shivgan, Deepak Tawde, Swapna Mhatre, Anish Makhwani, Tejashwi Ghosalkar, Sakshi Dalvi and Sandeep Patel. Milind Vaidya, Vishakha Raut, Vitthal Lokre, Sachin Padwal, Urmila Panchal, Hiralala and Lona Rawal have got places from the Thackeray group.

Amey Ghole, Sandhya Doshi, Kiran Landge and Ajit Rawrane have been included from the Shinde faction. Ashraf Azmi, Khan Miraj and Haider Mosin from Congress, Shabana Shaikh from AIMIM and Supriya Dalvi from MNS have got the opportunity. BJP’s Nikhil Vyas and Yojana Thokle, Priyanka Raut from Thackeray faction and Chandrawati More from Shinde faction have been nominated in the education committee.

The BEST Transport Committee includes BJP’s Akash Rajpurohit, Santosh Medekar, Ramakant Gupta, Sunil Ganacharya and Pramod Wakode. Pravina Morozkar, Sunil, Nitin Nadgaonkar and Sumit Ahir from Thackeray faction and Upendra Sawant from Shinde faction have got the opportunity. Asha Koparkar and Chandrakant Bhimrao Majlikar from Congress and Saifal Khan from AIMIM have also been given a place in the committee.

It will be mandatory for voters going to vote in the upcoming elections of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to show identity card. According to officials, voters can either show their Voter Photo Identity Card (EPIC) or produce any one of the 12 alternative documents approved by the State Election Commission.

Voting will be held in a total of 227 wards of the city on Thursday (January 15) from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. Counting of votes will be done on Friday, the next day of voting. The administration has completed all preparations to make the voting process peaceful and smooth.

This time a total of 1,700 candidates are trying their luck in the BMC elections. These include 878 women and 822 male candidates. The total number of voters is 1 crore 3 lakh 44 thousand 315, which includes 55 lakh 15 thousand 707 men, 48 lakh 26 thousand 509 women and 1,099 other voters.

How to vote without voter ID

Municipal Commissioner and District Election Officer Bhushan Gagrani said that voters who do not have Voter ID card can vote by showing passport, Aadhar card, driving license, PAN card, government photo identity card or bank/post office passbook with photo.

Apart from this, disability certificate (with photo), MNREGA job card, photo document related to pension, official identity card of MPs and MLAs, freedom fighter identity card or health insurance card with photo of the Union Labor Ministry will also be valid.

Special emphasis on facilities at polling stations

BMC’s Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Joshi has directed that voters should not face any kind of problem on the day of voting. Specially, it has been asked to provide adequate and prompt facilities for disabled voters. Besides, instructions have also been given to ensure provision of clean mobile toilets and drinking water at polling stations.

Joshi has ordered the Solid Waste Management Department to conduct a special cleanliness campaign around the polling and counting centers from January 14 to 16, so that the city remains clean and orderly.

The dates of municipal elections in Maharashtra have been announced. State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said that the code of conduct is being implemented in 29 municipal corporations from today (December 15). There is a plan to hold local body elections before January 31. Elections for all 29 municipalities including BMC will be held on January 15. The results will come on January 16. There will be 10 thousand 111 polling stations. Will use the list of July 1, 2025.

Candidates can file nomination for BMC elections from 23rd December to 30th December. Withdrawal of candidature can be taken till 2 January 2026. Election symbols can be distributed till January 3, 2026.

Activities of political parties intensify regarding BMC elections

The tenure of 27 municipal corporations in Maharashtra has ended. These elections are pending since 2022. These elections were to be held in the year 2022 itself but there was a lot of delay in it due to the issues of ward delimitation and reservation. The Supreme Court had issued instructions to complete the local body elections by January 31, 2026. After the announcement of elections, the political activities of all the political parties have intensified. Everyone has become more active in making their own strategies.

The country’s richest municipal corporation

BMC elections have been considered very important in the politics of the state. This affects the equations of state as well as national politics. BMC is the richest municipal corporation in the country. Its annual budget is quite big. In such a situation, all the political parties of the state have come together to exert their full strength to gain control over it. 227 corporators are elected in BMC.

Who will get how many seats in the 2017 elections?

In the 2017 BMC elections in Maharashtra, BJP had won 82 seats. Whereas 84 councilors of undivided Shiv Sena had won. Whereas Congress won 31 seats and NCP won 9 seats. The post of Mayor had gone to the undivided Shiv Sena.

However, now the entire political equation of the state has changed. Along with Shiv Sena, NCP is also divided into two groups. There are two alliances in the state, Mahayuti and Mahavikas Aghadi. Currently, there is a Mahayuti government in the state under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis. In such a situation, now everyone’s eyes are especially on BMC elections.