Nearly four years after the Shiv Sena split, the BJP emerged on the top of India’s financial capital emerging as the single largest party in the 227-seat Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the richest civic body in the country.

The Thackeray cousins - former chief minister Uddhav and Raj – who joined hands days before the polls and went to battle with the Maratha Manoos slogan saw its bastion of Mumbai slipping out of their hands.

So did the estranged uncle-nephew pair of Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who had joined forces in their stronghold Pune and Pimpri-Chihchwad watch the BJP gain the upper hand.

Of the 29 municipal corporations that went to polls, the BJP-led Mahayuti won 25.

“Maharashtra is firmly with the BJP,” said Devendra Fadnavis, the Maharashtra chief minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, "Thank you, Maharashtra! The enthusiastic people of the state have blessed the NDA's agenda of public welfare and good governance! The results of various municipal corporation elections show that the bond between the NDA and the people of Maharashtra has become even stronger."

Elections to the 29 municipal corporations were held on January 15 after gaps of several years, with terms of most civic bodies ending between 2020 and 2023. Nine of these corporations fall within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the most urbanised belt in the country.

The party’s leadership has projected the outcome as the success of its ‘Mission Mumbai’, marking its rise as the dominant political force in the financial capital.

For decades, the BMC was seen as the political bastion of the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, built on the idea of ‘Marathi asmita’.

After the 2024 Assembly polls, deputy CM Shinde-led Sena stood tall over the Thackeray family.

“Our issue is development. Their issue was emotion. Mumbaikars want change and convenience,” Shinde told NDTV.

The change quotient is debatable as the BJP had been playing second fiddle to the undivided Shiv Sena for decades and has not emerged as the leader with another faction of the Sena.

Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane linked the alliance’s performance to its campaign pitch.

“Jo Hindu ki baat karega wo Maharashra pe raj karenga (Those who speak for Hindu interests will rule Maharashtra.),” Rane posted on X.

In the RSS backyard of Nagpur, the BJP is set to cross its previous tally of 108 seats in the 151-member Nagpur Municipal Corporation, while the Congress struggled to make inroads.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari congratulated chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and party workers as trends showed the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance heading for victories across most of the 29 municipal corporations.

“Maharashtra's journey towards progress will gain even more strength under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leadership of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,” Gadkari said in a post on X, also congratulating state BJP chief Ravindra Chavan and revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, was elected as an Independent corporator from the Jalna Municipal Corporation.

Contesting from ward No. 13, Pangarkar secured 2,661 votes, defeating BJP candidate Raosaheb Dhoble, who polled 2,477 votes. Except for the Shiv Sena, almost all major parties had fielded candidates against him.

With the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena set to wrest control of the BMC from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena, the Congress has been reduced to a marginal presence in Mumbai’s civic politics. The only saving grace for the party came in Latur, the home turf of the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, the former chief minister of the state.

The Congress won the Latur Municipal Corporation, securing 43 of the 70 seats and pushing the BJP to second place with 22 seats. Election officials said the remaining seats were won by the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (4) and the Nationalist Congress Party (1).

Local observers linked the Congress victory to remarks made by state BJP president Ravindra Chavan during the campaign, when he said memories of late chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh would be “wiped out” from his hometown.