‘He was in power because he was in an alliance with BJP’: Athawale targets Uddhav amid BMC counting

Pune, Maharashtra: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday slammed Uddhav Thackeray’s political legacy, saying the former Shiv Sena chief remained in power for decades only because of alliances with the BJP and RPI(A).

Speaking on the ongoing BMC Elections 2026 vote counting, Athawale said, “Uddhav Thackeray was in power for 25-30 years. He was in power because he was in an alliance with the BJP. Today, the BJP is the number one party in the country. The RPI(A) was with Uddhav Thackeray since 2012, which is why he remained in power, but today neither the BJP nor the RPI(A) is with him. Uddhav Thackeray has now formed an alliance with Raj Thackeray, which seems to be giving him some advantage in certain Marathi-speaking areas, but most of the seats are going to the Mahayuti alliance.”

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He added that the Mayor of Mumbai will be from the Mahayuti alliance and will be a Marathi speaker, underlining the saffron bloc’s dominance in the city.

His remark came amid the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance has surged past the 100-seat mark in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, establishing a commanding lead as vote counting continues.

The results signal a possible end to the Thackeray-led bloc’s control over Mumbai and other key municipal bodies, a stronghold they have maintained for over three decades.

Earlier, Exit polls have predicted a sweep for the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the elections to 29 municipal corporations held on Thursday.

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A voter turnout of 52.94 per cent was recorded in the Mumbai civic polls, down from 55.53 per cent in the last elections in 2017, officials said on Friday.

In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whose annual budget is over Rs 74, 400 crore, elections were held after a four-year delay.

These were the first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena when Eknath Shinde, now Deputy Chief Minister, broke away with a majority of the party's MLAs and allied with the BJP to become the chief minister.

The undivided Shiv Sena held sway over India's richest civic body for 25 years (1997-2022).

In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunited last month even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Elections to the 29 municipal corporations were held after a gap of several years, with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.

Voting took place in these municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji