The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance has delivered a near-clean sweep across a majority of the 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, led by the crown jewel, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The strong performance of the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in the state was most visible in the BMC, whose elections were held after a four-year delay.

Of the 227 wards across the city, last counting trend shows that the Mahayuti alliance was leading in 116, followed by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) alliance leading in 85 wards. The strong performance in municipal polls comes amid a dip in voter turnout to 52.94%, down from 55.53% in the previous elections held in 2017.

The BJP’s performance in BMC is notable considering that their win has decisively ended the reign of the undivided Shiv Sena in the most-richest municipal body of India. The BMC’s annual budget runs into over Rs 74,000 crore, much higher than some of the state budgets in the country.

With this massive win, the 55-year-old chief minister of Maharashtra has decisively proved that he is fast emerging as a powerhouse within the BJP, which is also in power in the Centre through an alliance.

Fadnavis has been quite vocal about transforming the landscape of the city and putting Maharashtra as the most developed state of India with an aspiration to become a $1 trillion economy by 2028-2030 from the current over $500 billion.

According to a report by foreign investment bank, Morgan Stanley, Maharashtra’s GDP is the highest among Indian states, and is equivalent to the GDP of Singapore, the 28th largest economy in the world.

As per the report, the state has achieved this gigantic economic growth through a combination of investment, industrialisation, exports, fiscal prudence, a high literacy rate, and strong and stable leadership. The state has also been the top recipient of foreign direct investment, taking 39.2% of the total FDI inflow in FY25.

“We took the agenda of development in this election. People have given a massive mandate for the same agenda. The mandate we have is indicative that people want honesty, people want development,” the CM said in his victory speech at the headquarters of the party at Nariman Point in Mumbai on Friday evening.

Incidentally, the BJP has defeated ally Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, where Ajit had allied with Sharad Pawar against the BJP. The party also defeated ally Ekanth Shinde’s Shiv Sena in corporations such as Navi Mumbai, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad).