On Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared Ghatkopar corporator Ritu Tawde as its candidate for the position of Mayor in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday. In the presence of senior party leaders and corporators, Mumbai BJP president Ameet Satam made this decision at the civic office.

The prominent names being considered were Sion corporator Rajeshree Shirwadkar, along with the Ritu Tawde speculation leading to the official confirmation. The Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde, has named Sanjay Ghadi as its nominee for the deputy mayorship. This deputy mayorship is for a term of 1.5 years.

Tawde said that it was an “historic moment” and expressed her gratitude towards the party leadership to have shown trust in her. She said it was indeed a great honor. Earlier, she had worked as a corporator in 2012 but in 2017 she lost the election. Both Tawde and Ghadi went to the civic headquarters for filing nominations with the municipal secretary.

Satam said that Mumbai would see a BJP mayor after a gap of 44 years and the new leadership would work toward providing corruption-free governance. He added that the party would govern with the support and trust of the people of Mumbai.

The BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) coalition is confident about winning elections for both mayor and deputy mayor, even if the opposition parties also field their candidates. Currently, the coalition has support from 118 corporators out of the total 227 in the BMC House.

Satam told that Shiv Sena had limited the term of the Deputy Mayor of Shiv Sena to one-and-a-half years for giving an opportunity to more party workers to serve from the party for the city at critical civic positions.

Satam elaborated on the same alliance for stating that Mahayuti promised to have a Marathi mayor of Mumbai. Under Tawde, governance would be improved and corruption would be rooted out from the BMC.

Conversing upon the membership in the House, Satam stated that halfway mark stood at 114, stating that an alliance was clear in getting the mandate to rule. Corporators part of an alliance willing to join, however, would be welcome. Only non-Mahayuti AIMIM corporators would not be admitted.