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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Seventy-six mayors ruled BMC since 1931

After four years, Mumbai to salute its first citizen Kishori Pednekar Vishwanath Mahadeshwar Snehal Ambekar Sunil Prabhu Mumbai: As the date for appointing Mumbai’s First Citizen looms closer, various political parties have adopted tough posturing to foist their own person for the coveted post of Mayor – the ‘face’ of the country’s commercial capital. Ruling Mahayuti allies Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have vowed that the city...

Seventy-six mayors ruled BMC since 1931

After four years, Mumbai to salute its first citizen Kishori Pednekar Vishwanath Mahadeshwar Snehal Ambekar Sunil Prabhu Mumbai: As the date for appointing Mumbai’s First Citizen looms closer, various political parties have adopted tough posturing to foist their own person for the coveted post of Mayor – the ‘face’ of the country’s commercial capital. Ruling Mahayuti allies Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have vowed that the city will get a ‘Hindu Marathi’ person to head India’s richest civic body, while the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT)-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena also harbour fond hopes of a miracle that could ensure their own person for the post. The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) optimism stems from expectations of possible political permutations-combinations that could develop with a realignment of forces as the Supreme Court is hearing the cases involving the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party this week. Catapulted as the largest single party, the BJP hopes to install a first ever party-man as Mayor, but that may not create history. Way back in 1982-1983, a BJP leader Dr. Prabhakar Pai had served in the top post in Mumbai (then Bombay). Incidentally, Dr. Pai hailed from Udupi district of Karnataka, and his appointment came barely a couple of years after the BJP was formed (1980), capping a distinguished career as a city father, said experts. Originally a Congressman, Dr. Pai later shifted to the Bharatiya Janata Party, then back to Congress briefly, founded the Janata Seva Sangh before immersing himself in social activities. Second Administrator The 2026 Mayoral elections have evoked huge interest not only among Mumbaikars but across the country as it comes after nearly four years since the BMC was governed by an Administrator. This was only the second time in the BMC history that an Administrator was named after April 1984-May 1985. On both occasions, there were election-related issues, the first time the elections got delayed for certain reasons and the second time the polling was put off owing to Ward delimitations and OBC quotas as the matter was pending in the courts. From 1931 till 2022, Mumbai has been lorded over by 76 Mayors, men and women, hailing from various regions, backgrounds, castes and communities. They included Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, even a Jew, etc., truly reflecting the cosmopolitan personality of the coastal city and India’s financial powerhouse. In 1931-1932, the Mayor was a Parsi, J. B. Boman Behram, and others from his community followed like Khurshed Framji Nariman (after whom Nariman Point is named), E. A. Bandukwala, Minoo Masani, B. N. Karanjia and other bigwigs. There were Muslims like Hoosenally Rahimtoola, Sultan M. Chinoy, the legendary Yusuf Meherally, Dr. A. U. Memon and others. The Christian community got a fair share of Mayors with Joseph A. D’Souza – who was Member of Constituent Assembly representing Bombay Province for writing-approving the Constitution of India, M. U. Mascarenhas, P. A. Dias, Simon C. Fernandes, J. Leon D’Souza, et al. A Jew Elijah Moses (1937-1938) and a Sikh M. H. Bedi (1983-1984), served as Mayors, but post-1985, for the past 40 years, nobody from any minority community occupied the august post. During the silver jubilee year of the post, Sulochana M. Modi became the first woman Mayor of Mumbai (1956), and later with tweaks in the rules, many women ruled in this post – Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar (1994-1995), Vishakha Raut (997-1998), Dr. Shubha Raul (March 2007-Nov. 2009), Shraddha Jadhav (Dec. 2009-March 2012), Snehal Ambedkar (Sep. 2014-March 2017). The last incumbent (before the Administrator) was a government nurse, Kishori Pednekar (Nov. 2019-March 2022) - who earned the sobriquet of ‘Florence Nightingale’ of Mumbai - as she flitted around in her full white uniform at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, earning the admiration of the citizens. Mumbai Mayor – high-profile post The Mumbai Mayor’s post is considered a crucial step in the political ladder and many went on to become MLAs, MPs, state-central ministers, a Lok Sabha Speaker, Chief Ministers and union ministers. The formidable S. K. Patil was Mayor (1949-1952) and later served in the union cabinets of PMs Jawaharlal Nehru, Lah Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi; Dahyabhai V. Patel (1954-1955) was the son of India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel; Manohar Joshi (1976-1977) became the CM of Maharashtra, later union minister and Speaker of Lok Sabha; Chhagan Bhujbal (1985-1986 – 1990-1991) became a Deputy CM.

MNS helped UBT win half of its total tally

Updated: Nov 29, 2024

MNS

Mumbai: Though Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) had not supported the Mahayuti in assembly election, unlike they did in the Lok Sabha, Raj Thackeray had asserted that the party shall be part of the government if Mahayuti returns to power in the state. However, while the party couldn’t get any of its candidate elected, it seems that their presence has actually helped the Shiv Sena (UBT) win at least half of their seats. This has further reduced the chances of MNS getting any share of power in the state government now.


A closer look at the votes polled by the MNS shows that it has helped the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidates at least on 10 seats where the MNS candidates remained in the third position and Mahayuti candidates lost the seat by margins lower than the votes polled by the MNS candidates. Vikroli, Kogeshwari East, Dindoshi, Kalina, Vandre East, Mahim and Worli are the seven out of these 10 constituencies where the UBT clearly seems to have gained sufficient margin to win the seats because of the MNS candidates.


One can look at the most spectacular triangular contest in Mumbai that took place in the Worli constituency. Shiv Sena (UBT) scion Aditya Thackeray who fetched 63,324 votes defeated Milind Deora of Shiv Sena by 8801 votes. Deora got 54,523 votes while the third candidate Sandeep Deshpande of the MNS fetched 19,367 votes.


Deora said that all efforts were made to turn the MNS to its favour. “We were in touch with them. We even met some of their demands. But, after a limit they started becoming impracticable and it wasn’t possible to meet all their demands. We knew that it was not their purpose, yet, they became the ‘B’ team of Shiv Sena (UBT),” he added.


In Dindoshi Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Nirupam lost by 6182 votes to Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sunil Prabhu, where the MNS candidate fetched 20,309 votes. Data like this further strengthens the ‘B’-team rhetoric. While reacting to the results Nirupam Said, “In 2009 people felt that the MNS was eating up the Shiv Sena votes which benefitted the Congress. However, at least on seven seats in Mumbai, the MNS grabbed Marathi votes and in turn helped the Shiv Sena (UBT). We realized this during the campaign. But, by then it was too late to rectify that.”


Raj Thackeray’s son Amit stood third in the bastion of undivided Shiv Sena – Mahim. This is the home constituency of Raj Thackeray. In the triangular contest between MNS’ Amit, Shiv Sena’s Sada Sarvankar and UBT’s Mahesh Sawant in this constituency Sawant won by 1316 votes while Amit could fetch only 17,151 votes.


Interestingly, the MNS had not fielded any candidate in any of the 16 constituencies where Congress won or the 10 constituencies where NCP-SP won. This clearly indicates that though MNS had vouched support to the Mahayuti, they were actually helping the MVA. However, the voters in the state rejected them. The MNS could gather only about 1.8 percent votes in the state even though they had contested 125 seats. This is likely to affect the party’s status and may also lead them in losing their party symbol.

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