BMC Elections 2026: BJP’s Mumbai unit secretary warns against turning civic polls into a “family business”

BJP Mumbai president Ameet Satam. FILE PIC

Dissent within the BJP over issuing civic election tickets to family members of office bearers and public representatives is slowly beginning to surface.

Advocate Vivekanand Gupta has written to BJP Mumbai president Ameet Satam, urging the party to ensure that the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections do not turn into a "family business."

Gupta, a secretary of the BJP's Mumbai unit, has raised concerns over granting tickets to relatives such as wives, sons, daughters, or grandchildren of party office bearers, MLAs, and other public representatives. In his letter, he said tickets should be allotted only to deserving grassroots workers.

He added that candidates for the BMC polls should be party workers who have stood by the BJP for years, and not relatives of influential leaders taking advantage of changes in seat reservations from general to women, OBC, or other reserved categories.

Gupta warned that using reservation changes as a pretext to accommodate family members demoralises long-serving karyakartas who work at the ground level, hoping for a fair opportunity to contest elections.

Stating that the BJP is a party built by its workers, Gupta urged the leadership to resist pressure while finalising candidates and ensure transparency and fairness in ticket distribution. He said the BMC elections should reflect the party's commitment to merit, with loyalty and hard work - not family connections - deciding who gets to contest.