Mumbai's 78th Mayor to be Elected as Administrator Rule Comes to an End

Mumbai’s 227 newly elected corporators will assemble at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters on Wednesday to elect the city’s 78th mayor. The House will be reconvened after a gap of years – the tenure of previous corporators had ended in 2022. This will be the first meeting of the newly elected House and will be presided over by the BMC commissioner. The meeting will begin with the formal presentation of the list of the 227 corporators, followed by the opening of nomination papers for the post of mayor. On February 7, the ruling Mahayuti announced its candidates, with the BJP nominating Ritu Tawde for mayor and the Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena naming Sanjay Ghadi for deputy mayor. The Opposition has chosen not to field any candidate for the mayor’s post. Former mayor and Shiv Sena UBT corporator Kishori Pednekar said the party would focus on working as “a strong and united Opposition”. With no Opposition candidates in the fray, the presiding officer is expected to formally declare the Mahayuti nominee as mayor on Wednesday. The deputy mayor will also be declared elected unopposed. With Tawde set to assume office, the BJP will get its first mayor in Mumbai after nearly four decades. For the next two-and-a-half years, she will serve as the city’s first citizen and will be Mumbai’s eighth woman mayor. A two-term corporator, Tawde began her political career in the Congress before joining the BJP in 2012. She has represented the Ghatkopar belt and has served as chairperson of the Education Committee and vice chairperson of the Works Committee in the civic body. Ghadi began his political career in 1988 and went on to serve as president of the Mumbai University Students’ Council. He joined Raj Thackeray-led MNS in 2007 before returning to the Shiv Sena and winning the 2017 civic election. After the Sena split in 2022, Ghadi was among those who led protests against Eknath Shinde. He later joined the Shinde Sena. The election of the mayor will formally end administrator rule in the BMC, which had continued for 47 months. Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Shiv Sena UBT leaders Kishori Pednekar and Sunil Prabhu on Tuesday inspected the party office at the BMC headquarters as they took charge of the space allotted to them. After the general meeting on February 11, elections to the post of standing committee chairperson are expected to be held on February 20. In addition to the 227 elected corporators, 10 nominated members will be appointed to the civic council after the mayor’s election. Of these, four will be nominated by the BJP, three by the Shiv Sena UBT, and one each by the Congress, AIMIM and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.