Mahayuti dominates Mumbai, winning 22 of 36 seats

Mumbai: India’s financial capital witnessed a strong wave of support for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance in the Maharashtra assembly elections, with the coalition winning 22 of the 36 seats in the city.

The BJP topped the charts with 15 seats, followed by Shiv Sena (UBT) from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bagging 10. Chief minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena won six seats, while the Congress got three. Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Samajwadi Party secured one seat each, while Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction failed to open its account. The results weren’t much different from those in the 2019 polls, when the BJP won 16 seats and the undivided Shiv Sena clinched 14.
Key wins and losses
The BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar created history by winning his ninth consecutive term from the Wadala constituency. The 71-year-old, who has previously represented the Congress and the Shiv Sena, defeated Shraddha Jadhav of the Shiv Sena (UBT) by a substantial margin of 24,970 votes.
In Borivali, the BJP’s Sanjay Upadhyay registered a landslide victory with a margin of 100,257 votes, the highest in Mumbai. The lowest margin in the city was recorded in Mahim, where Mahesh Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT) defeated Sada Sarvankar of the Shiv Sena by just 1,316 votes. Amit Thackeray, son of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, finished a distant third. The result marked the first electoral defeat for a member of the Thackeray family, even as the MNS failed to win a single seat in the state.
Amit Thackeray’s cousin, Aaditya Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT), also faced a tough challenge in Worli, but managed to bag 8,801 more votes than the Shiv Sena’s Congress turncoat Milind Deora. Aaditya’s other cousin, Varun Sardesai, made an impressive debut in Vandre East for the Shiv Sena (UBT), defeating sitting NCP MLA Zeeshan Siddique by 11,365 votes. Sardesai expressed gratitude to the electorate, saying, “This victory reflects the trust placed in me, and I won’t let my voters down.”
Siddique and Sarvankar were among seven sitting MLAs from Mumbai who were defeated. On the other hand, prominent leaders like Mangal Prabhat Lodha (BJP) from Malabar Hill, Amin Patel (Congress) from Mumbadevi, and Rahul Narvekar (BJP) from Colaba successfully retained their seats.
This election also saw five first-time winners in Mumbai. Shiv Sena (UBT) introduced three fresh faces: Varun Sardesai (Vandre East), Mahesh Sawant (Mahim), and Haroon Khan (Versova). The two other newcomers are Sana Malik, daughter of NCP leader Nawab Malik, from Anushakti Nagar, and Dr Jyoti Gaikwad of the Congress from Dharavi.
Sana Malik had a closely contested fight in Anushakti Nagar, where she triumphed over Fahad Ahmad of the NCP (SP) by 3,378 votes. Ahmad had led the race until the 17th round, before Malik pulled ahead in the final two rounds to secure her win.
Northwest suburbs emerge as BJP stronghold
The northwestern suburbs, including Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali East, Magathane, Charkop, and Malad West, overwhelmingly favoured the Mahayuti alliance. These areas saw a high voter turnout, which led to significant margins of victory for Mahayuti candidates, barring Malad West, where the Congress’s Aslam Shaikh retained his seat with a narrow margin of 6,227 votes.
In Dahisar, the BJP’s Manisha Chaudhary retained her seat with a margin of 44,329 votes against Vinod Ghosalkar of the Shiv Sena (UBT). Similarly, BJP candidates Yogesh Sagar and Atul Bhatkhalkar from Charkop and Kandivali East secured comfortable wins with margins of 91,154 and 83,593 votes, respectively.
South Mumbai constituencies—Malabar Hill, Mumbadevi, and Colaba—saw no major surprises. Incumbents Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Amin Patel, and Rahul Narvekar retained their seats comfortably. Patel’s victory in Mumbadevi was particularly notable, as he defeated BJP-backed Shaina NC, representing the Shiv Sena, by a margin of 35,000 votes.
Challenges for the MVA
The MVA faced setbacks in several constituencies, reflecting internal challenges and a shifting voter base. In Chandivali, Congress heavyweight Naseem Khan lost to the Shiv Sena’s Dilip Lande by a margin of 20,625 votes. Meanwhile, anti-incumbency played a role in the defeat of BJP’s Bharati Lavekar in Versova, where Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Haroon Khan emerged victorious by leveraging strong local support and consolidating the Muslim vote.
Political analysts attributed the MVA’s poor performance to its failure to connect with voters at the grassroots and the success of the welfare schemes announced by the Mahayuti government following a poor show in the Lok Sabha elections. This included the hugely popular Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, under which underprivileged women get a monthly allowance of ₹1,500.
“After several voters complained of missing names from the voter’s list in the Lok Sabha election, the BJP started connecting with the voters and helped them add their names to the voting list. In the process, they also connected with new voters,” said Mumbai-based political researcher Harshad Bhosale.
He added that the BJP’s success is down to the party successfully attracting swing voters through freebies. “There are two types of voters, traditional and swing voters. Traditional voters always stick with their parties, but the increasing percentage of polling this year shows that more swing voters have come out to vote. It benefits the BJP,” he said.
Around 54.52% of Mumbai’s electorate turned up to vote in the assembly elections this year, bettering the 2019 turnout of 49.75%. It was also higher than the 2024 Lok Sabha election turnout of 52.4%.
Impact on civic polls
In the backdrop of the election outcome, political analysts expect the Mahayuti government to announce the long-pending local body elections soon to sustain the momentum. If the Mahayuti wave sustains, the BJP could take control of the country’s richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), for the first time, said political analyst Vivek Ghotale.
Prakash Pawar, an author of several political books, provided a contrasting perspective. “Shiv Sena (UBT) winning 10 seats in Mumbai shows that the upcoming [BMC] election result may go with them. If we observe the voting pattern of the two elections this year, voters have alternated their preferences. In the Lok Sabha, Mumbai preferred MVA [in four out of six seats], while the assembly elections were advantageous for Mahayuti. So, it’s likely that the upcoming BMC election could benefit Uddhav Thackeray.”
Pawar further delved into the reasons behind the Mahayuti’s success and the MVA’s shortcomings. He argued that the BJP has managed to establish strong connections with diverse segments of society through a well-crafted strategy. “With the help of RSS, they connected with various religious organisations. With the help of BJP leaders like [Union home minister] Amit Shah, they successfully connected with businessmen. [Uttar Pradesh chief minister] Yogi Adityanath’s promotion of [Hindutva ideologue] Veer Savarkar’s thoughts has also contributed to this strategy, helping them gain more votes in the Maharashtra election,” he said.