Maharashtra BMC Election Exit Poll Result Live: BJP–Shiv Sena sweep likely with at least 131 seats, exit polls predict

As the Thackeray cousins unite for the first time since 2005, analysts say the alliance is a fight to maintain relevance in Asia’s richest civic body, a longtime Thackeray stronghold.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has largely remained under Shiv Sena control since 1985, with the exception of 1992–1996. It has been the Thackeray family’s political bastion, where they have consistently held off challenges from the BJP, their main rival. In the 2017 civic polls, the BJP came close to overtaking the Sena, winning 82 seats – just two fewer than the undivided Shiv Sena’s 84 – yet the party retained the mayor’s post.

Determined to defend their turf, the cousins have buried a 20-year-old rivalry to form a Shiv Sena–MNS alliance in this year’s BMC elections, marking their first joint effort in nearly two decades.