BJP returns after 44 years as Ritu Tawde elected Mumbai mayor

Ritu Tawde was elected on Wednesday as the 78th Mayor of Mumbai, becoming the second BJP corporator to occupy the prestigious post in 44 years, while Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Ghadi was elected as deputy mayor.

Tawde (53) and Ghadi (57) were elected unopposed at a special meeting of the general body of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) following the January 15 civic elections. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and other opposition parties did not field a candidate.

The city had its first BJP Mayor in 1982-83 when Prabhakar Pai held the post. Tawde’s election on Wednesday marked the end of the Thackeray family’s dominance in Mumbai’s politics. 

Though largely ceremonial, the mayor’s post carries enormous political and symbolic significance in Mumbai’s identity-driven politics.

Municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, who had been acting as State-appointed administrator of the country’s richest civic body since the term of the earlier general body expired in March 2022, chaired the meeting.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar and other leaders of the BJP and Shinde-led Shiv Sena were present at the BMC headquarters. Amid sloganeering by corporators from both the ruling BJP-led alliance and the Opposition, Tawde took charge of her post. Ritu Tawde was elected from ward 132, while Ghadi was elected from ward 5 in last month’s elections.

The mayoral election —which was only a formality in the absence of opposition candidates — was held in the BMC’s historic Committee Hall.

Gagrani, as presiding officer, conducted the proceedings. Earlier in the day, corporators of the BJP and Shiv Sena paid floral tributes at Hutatma Chowk, a memorial of those who died in the struggle for statehood for Maharashtra.