Uddhav Thackeray Moves to Align With Raj, Pressures Congress Ahead of BMC Polls

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray is intensifying efforts to forge a broad opposition alliance for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections slated for early 2026, sources revealed on November 21, 2025, as talks progress to include his cousin Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) alongside Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners. The BMC, Asia's richest civic body with 227 seats, has been under Shiv Sena control since 1995, but the 2022 party split and the 2024 assembly drubbing—where Uddhav's faction won just 20 seats—have heightened stakes for reclaiming Mumbai's political cradle.

Uddhav's push stems from a desire to consolidate Marathi "manoos" votes in strongholds like Worli, Lalbaug, and Byculla, where fragmented support could otherwise benefit the ruling Mahayuti coalition of BJP, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar's NCP. Recent meetings between the Thackeray cousins, including a joint appearance at Bal Thackeray's death anniversary memorial on November 17, signal thawing relations after nearly two decades of rivalry since MNS's 2006 formation.

The proposal faces a major roadblock from the Congress, which on November 15 announced it would contest the BMC polls independently, a decision ratified at a Mumbai unit seminar chaired by Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala. Party insiders cite deep reservations over Raj Thackeray's history of polarizing rhetoric, including anti-migrant agitations in 2008 that targeted North Indians, Dalits, and Muslims—key demographics for Congress in urban Maharashtra. "It would be politically suicidal," one leader remarked, especially with Bihar elections looming and the high command wary of alienating its base.

This stance has cast uncertainty over the MVA's unity, forged successfully for the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly polls where the trio—Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), and Congress—secured 31 and 46 seats respectively. Uddhav's camp views the solo bid as inadvertently aiding BJP, which eyes the mayor's post and has dismissed the Thackeray reconciliation as "family dinners" with no electoral bite.

In response, Uddhav is reportedly devising a contingency: a Uddhav-Raj-Sharad Pawar alliance, excluding Congress to preserve MVA's core while leveraging NCP (SP)'s influence. Sharad Pawar, a veteran Mumbai hand, has personally urged Congress reconciliation but favors a unified MVA front; a joint Congress-NCP meeting next week could clarify alignments. Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, confirmed earlier overtures in August, predicting victories in BMC alongside Nashik, Thane, and Kalyan-Dombivli, where Shiv Sena (UBT) holds 90, 67, and 52 seats, respectively, versus MNS's slim 1, 0, and 9.

The cousins' informal pact, hinted at during a July 2025 "victory rally" sans party symbols, aims to revive the undivided Shiv Sena legacy, with Uddhav emphasizing protection of "voters, Hindus, and Maharashtra" in a November 1 address. Yet, a trial run in August's BEST Employees’ Co-operative Credit Society polls yielded zero seats, underscoring coordination challenges.

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As seat-sharing talks between Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS kick off this week, the BMC battle looms as a litmus test for opposition revival post-2024 losses, where Mahayuti swept 235 seats. BJP's Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar downplayed the Thackeray thaw, asserting Mahayuti's unchallenged dominance and challenging Uddhav to highlight 25 years of "remote-controlled" governance. For Uddhav, aged 65, and Raj, 57, success could cement their sons Aditya and Amit's futures; failure risks irrelevance. With electoral rolls under scrutiny for duplicates—Raj even quipping about "beating" imposters at booths—the polls promise high drama, potentially reshaping Maharashtra's urban power dynamics and testing whether familial reconciliation trumps ideological rifts.

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