Congress fails miserably in Mumbai: What went wrong?

The Congress party faces its worst municipal election performance in Mumbai, projected to win just 22 of 227 seats, raising leadership concerns

The Congress has put in its worst-ever performance in municipal elections in Mumbai, with the party expected to win just 22 seats in the 227-seat BMC. While results are still coming in, the final tally will make little difference to a party clearly flailing in Mumbai.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, with LoP Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi (Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times)

There were no rallies, no roadshows, no campaign initiatives to register with Mumbai’s voters. The party failed to plan and strategise and worse, seemed to have entered the fray with few expectations. Track updates from Maharashtra municipal corporation results here

The party’s performance in these polls have also raised serious questions on the leadership capabilities of the party’s Mumbai president, Varsha Gaikwad. Under her stewardship, the party has not only put in an abysmal showing, it has failed to maintain its tally of 31 seats in the last civic elections.

The Congress has gone from a significant political force to political irrelevance in the city where it was founded in December 1885, and from where it went on to rule the country for decades after Independence.

In these elections, the party contested 152 of the 227 seats, in alliance with the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), Mahadev Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP), and the Rajendra Gavai-led Republican Party of India (Gavai). The strategy was to consolidate Muslim and Dalit votes, along with a section of North Indian voters, and retain its position as the third major force after the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS combine and the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.

But there were no visible attempts to ensure that the strategy would deliver results on the ground, as the Congress leadership chose to keep the VBA out of their poll campaign. The VBA leadership objected to Congress leaders’ appeals, where they sought votes only for their own candidates instead of pushing for alliance candidates during the poll campaign.

For years, the Mumbai unit of the grand old party has been plagued by infighting. The exodus of prominent leaders has compounded its troubles. Their departure has left the organisation in disarray and demoralised party workers at the grassroots level.

Although the party achieved marginal success in the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, the BMC polls were a crucial opportunity to revive cadre morale, given the direct involvement of local workers in civic elections. It was a squandered opportunity.

What went wrong

An analysis of the last three BMC election results indicates a consistent downslide for the party in Mumbai. In 2007, the Congress won 71 seats; in 2012, the tally dropped to 51; and in 2017, it won just 31 seats.

Until 2007, the party secured more than a quarter of the vote share. It dwindled from 26.4% in 2007, to 21.2% in 2012, and 15.9% in 2017. In this election, it is expected to fall to a single digit.

Experts say that electoral shifts in the last decade have weakened the party’s position. Prior to 2014, a majority of North Indian voters supported the Congress; it has since dwindled to 20-25%. South Indian votes are now evenly split between the Congress and the BJP, while support among the Gujarati, Jain and Marwari communities has fallen to around 10%. Senior leaders admit that no serious effort has been made to rebuild trust among these communities or expand the party’s footprint in the city.

There is also a belief within the party that Gaikwad places her trust primarily in two leaders — MLAs Amin Patel and Aslam Shaikh — and their influence has dominated key decisions taken by the Mumbai Congress in the last year.

“If all leaders had been taken into confidence, the situation would have been very different. She was expected to visit all wards, hold meetings, understand local issues and then come out with a clear plan of action, but none of that has happened,” said a senior Congress leader.

“Besides, the city leadership did not leverage the experience of loyalists who have contested the last three to four BMC elections. They were ignored,” rued a senior functionary.

Heartburn over tickets

Ticket distribution was another sticking point, fuelling resentment within the Mumbai unit of the party. Many leaders allege that preference was given to top leaders and their families at the cost of loyal party workers who had stood by the Congress in tough times.

Many local leaders with strong chances of winning switched parties and contested against Congress candidates,” revealed a senior party leader.

In Andheri alone, three tickets were allotted to the family of senior leader Aslam Shaikh. His son Haider, sister Qumar Jahan and son-in-law Saif Ahad Khan contested from wards 34, 33 and 62, respectively.

“To accommodate Haider, the party leadership sacrificed former corporator Changez Multani, who had won the previous election from the same seat. As a result, Multani joined the Shiv Sena (UBT), which fielded his son Zeeshan from that ward,” a party insider revealed.

Gaikwad also allotted two tickets to the family of her close aide, former corporator Mohsin Haider. Haider’s son Sufiyan and wife Meher were fielded from wards 65 and 66, respectively. Former MLA Ashok Jadhav had sought the ticket for his son Kunal from ward 65, where his daughter Alpha had won in the previous election. “After being denied the ticket, Kunal joined the Sena (UBT) in the presence of Uddhav Thackeray,” another insider revealed.

Misstep in alliance

There is also a belief that the seat-sharing arrangement with the Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA was finalised without adequate ground-level analysis, resulting in the Congress surrendering a few seats it could have potentially won.

The impact of this was visible in 27 of the 227 seats in the BMC, almost 12% of the total number of seats, the Congress candidate did not field a candidate.

With missteps like this, squandered opportunities and a half-hearted campaign, the Congress all but sealed its own fate.