Mumbai Mayor row: Shinde meets corporators, dismisses allegations of bargaining with BJP

Officially, the Sena had declared that the corporators were kept in a hotel for a three-day training session, as many corporators were first-time ones.

Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday night met the 29 Shiv Sena corporators who have been holed up in Taj Land’s End hotel at Bandra since Saturday.

iMumbai, India - January 18, 2026: Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde felicitated the newly elected corporators at Hotel Taj Lands End, Bandra in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, January 18, 2025. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Speaking to the media, he said Mumbai would have a Mahayuti mayor, a statement that has been repeated often in the last few days. “Even neighbouring cities like Kalyan-Dombivli will have a Mahayuti mayor,” he said.

Shinde’s assertion comes amid speculation over his decision to move 29 corporators to a hotel after the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance secured a narrow majority in the recent civic polls. The opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) claimed that the corporators had been kept at the hotel since Shinde was bargaining for a better deal with the BJP and was also worried that they would be poached.

Officially, the Sena had declared that the corporators were kept in a hotel for a three-day training session, as many corporators were first-time ones.

On the opposition’s allegations that Sena corporators would be “untraceable”, Shinde said, “The Shiv Sena is not a party that gets cowed down. The Sena (UBT) should take care of its own corporators (hinting that they would be poached).” Alleging that Sena (UBT) corporators would abstain from voting, Samant added, “The media will realise who is not reachable at the time of the mayoral elections.” The minister hinted that some of the corporators from rival parties could vote for the Mahayuti mayoral candidate.

When asked if the Sena was demanding a sharing of the mayorship, Samant said, “All parties that come to power feel they must have their own mayor.” Sena sources said that since the birth centenary year of Sena founder Bal Thackeray will start on January 23, they wanted a Sena mayor this time.

Speaking to the corporators, Shinde asked them to get to work immediately and prepare an action plan, as “people want development”. He warned them that citizens must not face inconvenience and corporators must be visible. “Get up in the morning and get to work,” he said. “Your wards must be the best in Mumbai.”

Taking a dig at the Thackeray cousins, he said the Mahayuti’s development work had scored over their emotional appeals to the electorate.

Samant too reiterated that the civic body polls were contested as the Mahayuti alliance.

“The Shiv Sena will not do what the earlier Shiv Sena (headed by Uddhav Thackeray when he allied with the Congress after the 2019 polls) did,” he said.

Shinde noted that the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the civic polls, followed by the Shiv Sena, calling the results a precursor to the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.

In the recently concluded civic polls, the alliance of the BJP and Shinde-led Sena won a clear majority in the 227-member BMC, securing 89 and 29 seats, respectively. The Sena (UBT) won 65 seats, while its ally MNS emerged victorious on six.

Shinde further appealed to newly-elected Sena members to follow up on schemes like ‘pagdi-free Mumbai’, which refers to a plan to overhaul the old, problematic pagdi (tenant-ownership) system, aiming to clear stuck redevelopment projects.