Mumbai BMC mayoral election: BJP corporators frontrunners for jt group leader; Sena insists on 1.25-yr mayorship

MUMBAI: With the BJP and Shiv Sena set to register their groups for the BMC on Monday, BJP corporators Ganesh Khankar and Prabhakar Shinde have emerged as frontrunners for the post of group leaders. Sena functionaries said the two parties are likely to register a joint MahaYuti group if the BJP agrees to its power-sharing formula and assures it of the Mayor’s post for at least 1.25 years, if not a full 2.5-year term.

Khankar is an old BJP hand and a corporator from Borivli, while Shinde is a senior BJP corporator from Mulund. Shinde was in the Sena before and joined the BJP in 2017, and was also the BJP’s group leader when the BMC’s term ended in 2022. He was also a member of the Standing Committee.




If Khankar becomes the BJP’s group leader, he will be the leader of the house as the BJP is the single-largest party. In this case, Shinde will be afrontrunner to become Chairperson of the all-important Standing Committee. While the group leader’s post is for a period of 5 years, unless the appointee is changed by the party, the term of the Standing Committee Chairperson is only 1 year, and elections for the Chairperson take place every year.

“The party wants to nominate an original BJP man as the group leader. Plus, the nominee has to be Marathi. So, Khankar fits this bill. Prabhakar Shinde, on the other hand, is from the Sena originally but a very experienced hand, so he will be more suitable to handle the Standing Committee,” said a senior BJP functionary. Functionaries said a power-sharing formula between the two parties was finalised, and while the BJP will head the joint group with its group leader, the whip of the group of 118 corporators will be from the Sena. So, even though the Sena loses one group leader’s post, they will still have control of the joint group through a Sena whip.

Similarly, the BJP is likely to keep the Mayor’s post and Standing Committee Chairperson’s post, while the Sena is likely get the Chairperson of the Improvements, Health and BEST Committee, and the Deputy Mayor’s post. Sena corporator Amey Ghole is likely to be the Sena’s whip.

While a final call on the joint registration will be made between CM Devendra Fadnavis and DCM Eknath Shinde, functionaries said the path for a joint group registration was largely cleared.