January 16, 2026 - The Lucknow Tribune

Owaisi’s Urban Leap: AIMIM Emerges as a New Force in Mumbai

January 16, 2026January 16, 2026 Arijit Bose

Mumbai: When the results of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections were declared on January 16, 2026, the headlines were dominated by the sweeping victory of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance. Yet, beneath the larger narrative of power consolidation and the end of Thackeray-era dominance, another story quietly but decisively unfolded — the arrival of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) as a consequential force in Mumbai’s civic politics. For a party that until a decade ago had little footprint beyond Hyderabad and a few pockets of Maharashtra, AIMIM’s performance in…

Why the Thackeray Cousins’ Comeback Failed in Mumbai

January 16, 2026 Arijit Bose

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections of January 2026 delivered a verdict that was as politically symbolic as it was strategically decisive. Despite the much-publicised reunion of cousins Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray after nearly two decades of estrangement, Mumbai’s civic electorate chose continuity in governance over nostalgia in politics. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance — comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena — secured a comfortable majority in India’s richest municipal body, effectively ending nearly three decades of Shiv Sena and Thackeray family dominance over the…

BMC Elections 2026: Mumbai Reclaims Its Civic Mandate, Redrawing the City’s Political Map

January 16, 2026 Arijit Bose

Mumbai | The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections of 2026 will be remembered as a watershed in Mumbai’s civic and political history. Conducted on January 15 with results declared a day later, the polls restored elected governance to India’s richest municipal body after an unprecedented gap of nearly nine years. More than a routine civic exercise, the election reshaped power equations in Maharashtra’s capital, ending decades of entrenched dominance and ushering in a new era of BJP-led influence over Mumbai’s urban administration. With an annual budget exceeding ₹74,000 crore in 2025–26,…