The Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of candidates for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, a day ahead of the deadline for filing nominations. In its candidate list, the BJP has named 66 candidates, with women forming a significant proportion of the nominees.
The move underlines the party’s attempt to balance organisational strength with social representation as it gears up for one of the most closely watched municipal elections in the country.
Despite being in power at both the Centre and in Maharashtra, the BJP has so far failed to capture control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, India’s richest civic body. In the 2017 BMC elections, the party contested independently and emerged as the single largest party with 82 corporators, but fell short of a majority. At the time, the undivided Shiv Sena went on to secure the mayor’s post.
This time, the BJP will contest the elections in alliance with the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde. Within the alliance, the BJP is expected to play the role of the senior partner, with the Shinde-led Shiv Sena as the junior ally. Party leaders believe this new political arithmetic significantly improves their chances of finally securing the mayor’s post.
The first list reflects this strategy, with women candidates fielded across several wards, suggesting an effort to project an inclusive and electorally broad-based slate. Party sources said further lists would be released in the coming days after consultations with alliance partners and local units.
Women Candidates
Ward No. 2 – Tejaswi Ghosalkar
Ward No. 13 – Rani Trivedi
Ward No. 14 – Seema Shinde
Ward No. 15 – Jigna Shah
Ward No. 16 – Shweta Korgaonkar
Ward No. 17 – Shilpa Sangore
Ward No. 19 – Dakshata Kavathankar
Ward No. 24 – Swati Jaiswal
Ward No. 31 – Manisha Yadav
Ward No. 37 – Pratibha Shinde
Ward No. 46 – Yogita Koli
Ward No. 52 – Preeti Satam
Ward No. 57 – Shrikala Pille
Ward No. 59 – Yogita Dabhadkar
Ward No. 60 – Sayali Kulkarni
Ward No. 69 – Sudha Singh
Ward No. 72 – Mamta Yadav
Ward No. 74 – Ujjwala Modak
Ward No. 84 – Anjali Samant
Ward No. 97 – Hetal Gala
Ward No. 100 – Swapna Mhatre
Ward No. 103 – Hetal Gala Marvekar
Ward No. 105 – Anita Vaity
Ward No. 108 – Dipika Ghag
Ward No. 111 – Sarika Pawar
Ward No. 116 – Jagruti Patil
Ward No. 126 – Archana Bhalerao
Ward No. 127 – Alka Bhagat
Ward No. 129 – Ashwini Mate
Ward No. 152 – Asha Marathe
Ward No. 172 – Rajshree Shirodkar
Ward No. 174 – Sakshi Kanojia
Ward No. 190 – Sheetal Gambhir Desai
Ward No. 196 – Sonali Sawant
Ward No. 218 – Snehal Tendulkar
Ward No. 227 – Harshita Narvekar
Men Candidates
Ward No. 7 – Ganesh Khankar
Ward No. 10 – Jitendra Patel
Ward No. 20 – Bala Tawde
Ward No. 23 – Shivkumar Jha
Ward No. 36 – Siddharth Sharma
Ward No. 43 – Vinod Mishra
Ward No. 47 – Tejinder Singh Tiwana
Ward No. 58 – Sandeep Patel
Ward No. 63 – Rupesh Savarkar
Ward No. 68 – Rohan Rathod
Ward No. 70 – Anish Makwani
Ward No. 76 – Prakash Musale
Ward No. 85 – Milind Shinde
Ward No. 87 – Mahesh Parkar
Ward No. 99 – Jitendra Raut
Ward No. 104 – Prakash Gangadhare
Ward No. 106 – Prabhakar Shinde
Ward No. 107 – Nilesh Somaiya
Ward No. 122 – Chandan Sharma
Ward No. 135 – Navnath Ban
Ward No. 144 – Bablu Panchal
Ward No. 154 – Mahadev Shigvan
Ward No. 185 – Ravi Raja
Ward No. 195 – Rajesh Kangane (Worli constituency)
Ward No. 207 – Rohidas Lokhande
Ward No. 214 – Ajay Patil
Ward No. 215 – Santosh Dhole
Ward No. 219 – Sunny Sanap
Ward No. 221 – Akash Purohit
Ward No. 226 – Makarand Narvekar
With more candidate lists expected shortly, the BJP’s opening announcement has set the tone for what is expected to be a fiercely contested BMC election.
