Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Feb 10: BJP corporator Ritu Tawde is set to take charge as Mumbai’s next mayor after being elected unopposed in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), marking a major political shift in the country’s richest civic body.
The mayoral election, scheduled for Wednesday at noon, will formally make Tawde the city’s eighth woman mayor, nearly three years after a woman last held the post between 2019 and 2022. Her elevation ends Shiv Sena’s uninterrupted 25-year control over the BMC mayor’s office and gives the BJP its first mayoral victory in Mumbai since Prabhakar Pai’s tenure in 1982–83.
The unopposed outcome was sealed after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) decided not to field a candidate against Tawde, reportedly following a meeting at Thackeray’s residence. Former mayor and Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar said the decision was taken in respect of Marathi identity and in view of the Mahayuti alliance’s numerical strength in the 227-member civic body.
Tawde, 53, a two-time corporator from Ghatkopar East, filed her nomination at the municipal secretary’s office in the presence of senior Mahayuti leaders, including minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha and BJP Mumbai president Ameet Satam. Her deputy mayor will be Sanjay Ghadi of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, who will hold the post for 15 months as part of a rotational arrangement, while the mayor’s tenure is for two-and-a-half years.
Speaking to reporters, Tawde said she would work as a “sevak” of Mumbai and focus on citizens’ safety, development and quality of life. She was first elected as a corporator in 2012, chaired the BMC Education Committee, lost the 2017 civic polls, and returned in the latest elections by securing 19,810 votes from her ward.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the civic polls with 89 seats, followed by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena with 29 seats. The Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance won 65 seats, Congress secured 24 seats, and the MNS added six seats to the opposition tally.
The opposition NCP (SP) criticised the BJP’s choice, pointing out that Tawde was formerly with the Congress. Party spokesperson Clyde Crasto said the decision had demoralised long-time BJP corporators.
BJP leaders, however, described Tawde’s election as symbolic of a corruption-free administration and a fresh chapter in Mumbai’s civic governance. The BMC has been under a state-appointed administrator since March 2022 and has a proposed budget of Rs 74,450 crore for 2025–26.
Tawde’s unopposed victory not only signals the BJP’s return to the mayor’s office after four decades but also consolidates the Mahayuti alliance’s dominance in Mumbai’s civic politics, bringing an end to nearly three decades of Shiv Sena-led control.