With the change of guard at the CMO, the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) might consider doing away with the Chief Minister's fellows appointed by the BMC commissioner. Corporators and officers had said then that it was the state government's strategy to keep an eye on their work. Now, with the Sena ruling in the BMC and the state, this won't be needed.

The BMC had hired 15 fellows, who had completed the CM's fellowship programme, at a monthly salary of R75,000 in September. It had claimed to use their expertise and help get out-of-box ideas from them. Many department heads in the civic body, along with the mayor and the standing committee chairman were, however, hesitant to recruit them. The fellowship programme was a brainchild of former CM Devendra Fadnavis.