Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 66 candidates for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Monday. With this announcement, the party has made its formal entry in the big battle for Asia’s richest civic body. The main names in the first list include Tejashwi Ghosalkar, Ganesh Khankar, Manisha Yadav, Milind Shinde and Akash Purohit.
Read :- Shiv Sena announces alliance between UBT and MNS, Thackeray brothers together after 20 years
Ghosalkar recently left Shiv Sena (UBT) and joined BJP, while Akash Purohit is the son of former party minister Raj Purohit. A big feature of the list is former leader of opposition in BMC, Ravi Raja, who recently left Congress and joined BJP. Raja will contest from ward number 185 of Dharavi, which is being seen as a direct challenge to the Congress stronghold in that area. Other well-known candidates include Neil Somaiya (Ward 107), son of former MP Kirit Somaiya. Whereas, Makarand Narvekar (Ward 226) and Harshita Narvekar (Ward 227) are family members of Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar. The name of Tejinder Singh Tiwana (Ward 47) is also included in the list.
The BJP has released its first list at a time when the party is still engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Although both the parties claim that they are allies in the Mahayuti, the seat-sharing is still not finalised. BJP insiders said that the party wants to contest elections on 150 seats and is not ready to accept the Shinde faction’s demand of 100 seats. However, they may finalize a seat-sharing deal with the BJP, in which they will contest on 140 seats and give 87 seats to the Shinde faction.
The 2026 elections will present a changed political map in Mumbai. For the first time in nearly 20 years, brothers Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray are expected to contest the municipal elections together. The Thackeray brothers had announced the alliance only last week. BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena are together. On the other hand, Ajit Pawar’s NCP has decided to contest the elections alone in Mumbai. The State Election Commission has announced that voting for BMC and other 28 municipal corporations of Maharashtra will be held on January 15, 2026. After counting of votes, the results will be declared on January 16, 2026.
Comments are closed.