Mumbai BMC Elections 2026: Prestige Battle Intensifies As Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde And Thackeray Cousins Fight For Political Supremacy

Mumbai: With the political prestige of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and the Thackeray cousins – Uddhav and Raj – at stake, Mumbai is bracing for a tense and closely contested BMC elections. Voting is scheduled for Thursday, and the outcome is expected to have far-reaching implications for Maharashtra politics.

Early campaign narrative

At the outset, the campaign was largely shaped by the BJP and its ally, the Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde, with a strong emphasis on the Hindutva plank. In contrast, the Thackeray cousins sought to mobilise voters around Marathi identity and pride. As the campaign gathered momentum, however, the narrative shifted decisively towards the long-standing Marathi versus non-Marathi divide, a fault line that has influenced Mumbai’s electoral politics for decades.

The contest was initially projected as a triangular fight between the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance, the Shiv Sena (UBT)–MNS alliance and the Congress–Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) coalition. This equation altered significantly after the joint Shivaji Park rally addressed by Uddhav and Raj Thackeray on Sunday, which signalled a renewed attempt to consolidate the Marathi vote. Consequently, the BMC election has evolved into a prestige battle not only for the BJP leadership but also for the Thackeray cousins and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad.

The realignment of the Thackerays appears to have helped bring together a fragmented Marathi voter base, traditionally known to vote en bloc. A key trigger for this consolidation was the controversy surrounding the campaign against pigeon feeding, which drew strong opposition from the Jain community and others. While the Jain community is generally perceived as sympathetic to the BJP, the campaign was viewed by many as an attempt to impose cultural dominance. The subsequent decision of the state government to introduce Hindi as a third language in schools further sharpened sentiments around linguistic identity.

With the tone thus set, BJP leaders initially emphasised Hindutva. However, as the Thackerays intensified their pitch for the preservation of Marathi language, culture, and pride, the BJP doubled down on its core ideological messaging. Minister Nitesh Rane, for instance, took to social media to declare, “Hindus have decided. I love Mahadev.” In response, the Thackeray cousins, along with family members, gathered at Shivtirth, Raj Thackeray’s residence at Shivaji Park, and later visited the Mumbadevi Temple to seek blessings.

The BJP suffered a setback when Tamil Nadu BJP leader K. Annamalai remarked that Mumbai is not a Maharashtra city but an international city – a comment swiftly seized upon by the Thackerays to bolster their Marathi pride narrative.

Amid these developments, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena appears to have ceded ground, with the BJP fighting an increasingly independent battle. The results, to be announced on Friday, will largely hinge on how the Shinde faction performs in the 90 seats it is contesting. The more seats the Thackerays manage to wrest from this bloc, the closer they come to reclaiming power in Mumbai.

In the 227-ward BMC, the BJP is contesting 137 seats, the Shiv Sena 90, and the NCP separately in 94 wards. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded 163 candidates, the MNS 52, the Congress 143, and the VBA 46.

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