29 December,2025 11:40 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Deputy CM and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde with BJP leader and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. File pic
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest on 137 seats while its ally, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will fight on 90 of the 227 municipal wards in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Election, slated to be held on January 15, 2026.
The announcement was made by BJP's Mumbai head Ameet Satam late on Monday evening. Satam said that the leaders of both the parties will campaign together for the Mahayuti alliance. Satam further said that the Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party of India (RPI-Athawale) and other allies will be given seats from the BJP and Shiv Sena's share. He also clarified that there is no anger among the allies over seat allocation.
mid-day.com had on December 26 reported that the BJP was keen to contest around 145 seats, as this would put it close to the halfway mark of 114 seats needed to win control of the 227-member Mumbai civic body on its own. BJP had offered around 80 seats and was unwilling to concede any more. However, the seat-sharing has been finalised between the two allies, with the BJP conceding a few seats to the Shinde-led party.
Meanwhile, BJP released its first list of 70 candidates for BMC Election 2026 earlier on Monday, a day before the deadline to file nominations ends.
While the list includes some corporators who won the BMC polls in 2017, prominent among the nominees is the BJP's state media chief Navnath Ban, 38, who is the youngest among the contestants.
Ban will contest from ward number 135 in Shivajinaar area.
Elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the high-stakes Mumbai, will be held on January 15, and votes will be counted the next day.
In the BMC elections held in 2017 for 227 seats, the BJP made giant strides in the Shiv Sena citadel of Mumbai, winning 82 seats, just two seats behind the estranged ally Shiv Sena (undivided).
The Congress was relegated to the third position with 31 seats, whereas the NCP (undivided) and Raj Thackeray's MNS were reduced to 9 and 7 seats, respectively.
AIMIM had won three seats on debut, Samajwadi Party six, Akhil Bhartiya Sena one, and Independents four.
A total of 357 nomination papers were filed on the penultimate day for filing of nominations for BMC polls on Monday, taking the cumulative tally to 401 so far.
(With PTI inputs)
