Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday said that voters in Mumbai had chosen development over legacy politics, claiming the electorate voted against those who had been in power for the past 25 years. His remarks came after the results of municipal corporation elections held across the state on January 15.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Shinde asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance was set to secure mayoral positions in a majority of the 29 municipal corporations where polls were conducted. He said the outcome reflected public support for what he described as the alliance’s “development agenda”.
“Our agenda was development. Some parties contested the elections on an emotional plank,” Shinde said, in an apparent reference to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray. He added that voters had rejected those who governed Mumbai’s civic body for over two decades.
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The undivided Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, had controlled the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)—India’s richest civic body—from 1997 until 2022. In the recent polls, the Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, crossed the majority mark in the 227-member BMC, according to Shinde.
He also highlighted his party’s performance in Thane, his home turf, stating that the Shiv Sena had secured a clear majority there with 71 seats in the civic body. Shinde described the results as a validation of governance delivered during his tenure as Chief Minister from June 2022 to November 2024.
The Deputy Chief Minister attributed the alliance’s electoral success to what he called consistent development work carried out first under his leadership and later by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He maintained that voters had rewarded performance and governance rather than emotional appeals.
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