3 minutes of readingBombayUpdated: February 10, 2026 21:27 IST
Mumbai’s 227 newly elected businessmen will meet at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters on Wednesday to elect the city’s 78th mayor. The House will reconvene after a lapse of years: the mandate of the previous corporations had ended in 2022.
This will be the first meeting of the newly elected House and will be chaired by the BMC commissioner. The meeting will begin with the formal presentation of the list of the 227 corporations, followed by the opening of the application talks for the position of mayor.
On February 7, the ruling Mahayuti announced his candidates: the BJP nominated Ritu Tawde for mayor and the Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena to appoint Sanjay Ghadi as deputy mayor. The opposition has chosen not to present any candidate for mayor. Former mayor and Shiv Sena UBT corporator Kishori Pednekar said the party would focus on working as “a strong and united opposition”.
With no opposition candidates in the race, the president is expected to formally declare Mahayuti’s candidate as mayor on Wednesday. The deputy mayor will also be declared elected without opposition.
With Tawde about to take office, the BJP will have its first mayor in Bombay after almost four decades. For the next two and a half years, she will be the city’s first citizen and the eighth mayor of Mumbai.
A two-term corporator, Tawde began her political career with the Congress before joining the BJP in 2012. She has represented the Ghatkopar belt and served as chairperson of the Education Committee and vice-chairperson of the Works Committee in the civic body.
Ghadi began his political career in 1988 and later served as president of the Mumbai University Students’ Council. He joined the Raj Thackeray-led MNS in 2007 before returning to the Shiv Sena and winning the 2017 civic elections. After the Sena split in 2022, Ghadi was among those who led the protests against Eknath Shinde. He later joined the Shinde Sena.
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The mayor’s election will formally end administrative rule in the BMC, which had continued for 47 months.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Shiv Sena UBT leaders Kishori Pednekar and Sunil Prabhu on Tuesday inspected the party office at the BMC headquarters while taking charge of the space allotted to them.
After the general assembly on February 11, elections for the position of chairman of the standing committee are expected to be held on February 20.
In addition to the 227 elected corporations, after the election of the mayor, 10 designated members will be appointed to the civic council. Of them, four will be nominated by the BJP, three by the Shiv Sena UBT and one by the Congress, AIMIM and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
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