Elections have been announced for BMC, the country’s largest municipal corporation. Voting will be done on January 15 and counting of votes will take place on January 16. The big question is who will take over this municipal corporation dominated by Thackeray’s Shiv Sena this time? This time, along with the political scenario, the map has also changed in BMC.

There are 236 seats here, in 2017 there were 227 seats. BMC elections were to be held in the year 2022, but they were delayed due to issues related to ward delimitation and reservation. In September 2025, the Supreme Court had said that local body elections should be completed by January 31, 2026.

In the 2017 elections, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena emerged as the largest party and captured the post of Mayor in alliance with BJP. Shiv Sena had got maximum 84 seats. BJP had got 82 seats. Shiv Sena was united then under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray. Whereas Congress won 31 seats, NCP 9, MNS 7 and AIMIM won two seats.

This time, till the announcement of elections, there has been no announcement on the alliance formula in both the party and opposition camps. An alliance is expected with a friendly fight in the elections. BJP, Shiv Sena Shinde faction and Ajit Pawar’s NCP are definitely talking about fighting together, but there is every possibility of a friendly fight.

Angry Eknath Shinde!

In fact, during the Panchayat elections, Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde appeared quite angry with the BJP’s stance. The party said that BJP has defeated their leaders.

Such was his displeasure that he did not even attend the cabinet meeting. However, after the elections, BJP did damage control. There was a long meeting between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shinde and after this BJP announced that we will fight the local elections together. At the same time, BJP is angry with Ajit Pawar’s NCP. NCP has given command of BMC elections to Nawab Malik, BJP is opposing it. In such a situation, the time to come will tell what will be the equation of Mahayuti in the elections.

NCP will take decision today

NCP has called a meeting on Tuesday (16 December) at 4 pm. Sources said that whether to contest the elections as a grand alliance or to consider any other option, this will be discussed in today’s meeting.

Small workers have a lot of expectations from local elections, in such a situation all the parties want to bring maximum seats to their side. The grand alliance of all three parties is currently in the Maharashtra government. At the same time, small parties like RPI are also hoping to get seats in Mahayuti.

BJP is going to start the first round of talks with constituent parties for BMC elections from today. BJP will hold talks with Shiv Sena and RPI Athawale today.

condition of opposition alliance

There is confusion about the stand of Congress due to Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) and Raj Thackeray joining MNS in the opposition. Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray have come together after 20 years. Both the brothers are faced with the challenge of survival. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has reached MNS President Raj Thackeray’s house today to discuss seat sharing.

The unity of the Thackeray brothers put the Congress in a dilemma. Different voices are being raised within the party. Some believe that one should fight separately from Thackeray. At the same time, some party leaders also believe that fighting with Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS will be beneficial.

Regarding the conversation, Sanjay Raut said, “There may be a formal announcement from the Thackeray brothers this week.” As of now I don’t think Congress is with us. I had spoken to the Congress High Command, who had left the decision to the local unit. Let us tell you that Congress has called a meeting today regarding BMC elections.

The stand of Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) is awaited. The closeness between uncle and nephew has increased in recent times amidst confusion regarding Ajit Pawar in Mahayuti and Sharad Pawar in MVA. Recently, Prafulla Patel of Ajit Pawar group attended Sharad Pawar’s birthday party. The photo of the meeting sparked a new discussion in political circles.

In the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) had contested together. This Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance defeated Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections, however, it suffered a crushing defeat in the Assembly elections.

The last election was held on 21 February 2017 and the result was announced on 23 February. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considered to be the largest municipal corporation in Asia. In the last budget, an expenditure of about Rs 75,000 crore was estimated for the current financial year. In such a situation, the eyes of all parties are fixed on BMC.

In the Vice-Presidential election, the opposition India alliance held former Supreme Court Justice B.K. Sudarshan Reddy has been nominated. It was announced by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday (August 19). On this occasion, other leaders of opposition parties were accompanied by NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray’s party Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut.

It is clear that all MPs of Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) will support Reddy. B. Sudarshan Reddy will compete with NDA’s CP Radhakrishnan. However, according to the numbers, Radhakrishnan’s victory is believed to be fixed. Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan belongs to Tamil Nadu. There B. Sudarshan Reddy is a resident of Andhra Pradesh.

Devendra Fadnavis appealed

In fact, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had appealed to Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray to support Radhakrishnan, reminding of Marathi Asmita. He said in Mumbai on Monday (August 18), “Radhakrishnan is a registered voter in Mumbai and cast his vote here in last year’s Maharashtra assembly elections. If he files nomination for the post of Vice President, he will mention that he is a registered voter of Mumbai. It is a matter of pride for Maharashtra. ”

Fadnavis said, “Political parties like Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) talk about Maharashtra’s Asmita (Gaurav), they should support Radhakrishnan’s candidature.”

How many number?

Please tell that Shiv Sena (UBT) has 9 MPs in Lok Sabha and two MPs in Rajya Sabha. At the same time, NCP (SP) has 10 members in Lok Sabha and 2 members in Rajya Sabha. The NDA has the support of at least 422 members in the Election Board of 781 MPs. The majority figure is 391.

Jagdeep Dhankhar suddenly resigned on 21 July. Now voting for this post will be held on 9 September.

Sharad Pawar’s party has got a new president in Maharashtra. The party has appointed Shashikant Shinde as the state president. This decision has been taken after Jayant Patil resigned. After his resignation, many names were being speculated but now Shashikant Shinde’s name has been finalized.

Shashikant Shinde is considered to be a Gaddavar leader in western Maharashtra and in view of his experience, the party has awarded him such a big responsibility in Maharashtra. Shinde has been active in politics since a young age.

Who is Shashikant Shinde?
Shashikant Shinde hails from Humgaon village of Javali taluka in Satara district of Maharashtra. He is a graduate of the Commerce Branch (Commerce) and is known as an influential leader of Mathadi workers. He was born on 19 October 1963. His childhood was spent in his father Jayavantrao Shinde and mother Kausalya Shinde in a beautiful and affectionate atmosphere.

Shashikant Shinde began to participate active in the social and political fields at a very young age. In 1999, he contested for the first time from Jawali assembly constituency and won by a margin of 12,000 votes. He has also been the Water Minister of Krishna Valley Patbandhare Mahamand (Irrigation Development Corporation) of Maharashtra Government.

MLAs from Koregaon
From 2009 to 2014, he was a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA from Koregaon assembly constituency. In this election, he defeated Shalini Tai Patil. Shashikant Shinde has represented Jawali twice and twice as an MLA from Koregaon. However, in the 2019 assembly elections, he suffered a defeat to Mahesh Shinde of Shiv Sena in Koregaon seat.

Lok Sabha-Vidhan Sabha election was fought
After this, Shashikant Shinde contested from Satara Lok Sabha seat as a candidate for Mahavikas Aghadi. He was in the fray against BJP Mahayuti candidate Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosle on behalf of the Nationalist Congress (Sharad Pawar faction), but he had to face defeat.

Currently members of the Legislative Council
In the assembly elections again too, he had to face defeat against Mahesh Shinde from Koregaon. Currently, Shashikant Shinde is a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council and is acting as the Chief Leader of Opposition (Main Pratod) of the Nationalist Congress (Sharad Pawar faction).

Maharashtra News: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar shared an interesting anecdote on Wednesday (2 July). He said that he and Bal Thackeray, the founder of Shiv Sena, had tried to start a monthly magazine once, but that experiment failed.

He said this at an event organized by the All India Marathi Journalist Council, where journalists were honored for his contribution. In the program, Pawar mentioned his old association with journalism.

I have some connection with journalism- Sharad Pawar

He said, “I have had some connection with journalism. If our experiment had been successful, then perhaps we would have been entitled to the honor of the All India Marathi Journalist Council today.”

Pawar said that he, the late Balasaheb Thackeray and some of his friends had started a monthly magazine together and all had invested Rs 5,000-5,000 in it. He planned to remove it in English like ‘Time’ magazine.

The first issue proved to be final- Sharad Pawar

Pawar said in laughter, “We had published the first issue with great enthusiasm and thought it would be very popular, but unfortunately that number proved to be final. After that the magazine never appeared in the market.” He also said that the work of journalism in democracy is very challenging and in such a situation, the responsibility of journalists increases even more.

On this occasion, senior journalist Madhukar Bhave was awarded the ‘Bal Shoshastri Jambhekar Lifetime Achievement Award’, while journalist Bharat Jadhav was given ‘special honor’.

Sharad Pawar, while wishing all the respected journalists, hoped that he will continue to contribute to strengthening democracy by maintaining the values ​​of journalism.