Mahayuti to Win 26 of 29 Municipal Corporations, Says Fadnavis

Mumbai:Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the BJP-led Mahayuti would come to power in at least 26 of the 29 municipal corporations going to polls on January 15, including key civic bodies such as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). The election campaign for all municipal corporation elections ended at 5pm. Mr. Fadnavis concluded his campaign at the Worli BDD Chawl, where he interacted with residents.

Responding to a question on his assessment after campaigning across municipal corporations in the state, Mr. Fadnavis told this newspaper that the BJP would not face any difficulty in major corporations. “We will win the BMC, PMC, PCMC, Nashik and Nagpur. Overall, my assessment is that we will secure 26 to 27 corporations,” he said.

Mr. Fadnavis said that one of the Mahayuti partners would form the civic body and have its mayor in the corporations it wins, though he declined to name the three corporations, where the alliance may not succeed, before voting is concluded.

He further claimed that the BJP would form the civic bodies in PMC and PCMC with a comfortable majority, indicating that the party would not require support from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. “We (the BJP and the Shiv Sena) are going to get a good number of seats in the BMC,” he said.

The Chief Minister also asserted that the narrative of the BMC election had already been set and could not be altered by speeches of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. “The tone of the BMC election has been set. The tone is for a change in the civic body,” he said, adding that he responded to Mr. Thackeray’s remarks to prevent people from assuming the Opposition’s claims were correct.

Claiming that the voters had taken note of the work done by the BJP-led government, he added, “We have delivered major infrastructure projects, including the Atal Setu and the Metro. Therefore we have won people’s trust.”

Rejecting the perception that Marathi-speaking voters align with the Shiv Sena (UBT) or the MNS, Mr. Fadnavis said the BJP enjoys consistent support from the Marathi Manoos. He pointed out that the BJP had contested the 2014 and 2024 Assembly elections against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the MNS and had secured more assembly seats than its rivals. “We have consistently won 15 to 16 seats in Mumbai in the last three Assembly elections. That would not be possible without the backing of the Marathi Manoos. The BJP has a stable voter base among them,” he said.

Mr. Fadnavis said there would be no impact of Shiv Sena(UBT)-MNS alliance in the civic elections and claimed that Raj Thackeray would be the biggest loser. Taking a swipe at the Thackeray cousins, he said, “Thackeray is not a brand anymore. Balasaheb Thackeray was a brand. Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray are not brands.”

He, however, added that no political party could be completely finished off. “If you lose an election, you can bounce back only by making efforts. Apart from Mumbai, the Thackerays had campaigned in Thane and Nashik only as a formality. They did not fight those elections with full intensity.”