Mumbai BMC mayor election: Meet the women frontrunners for richest civic body

MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised to take the Mumbai mayor’s post for the first time since the 1980s, with the party narrowing its choice to several women corporators.

The post was reserved for a woman from the open category in a draw of lots held on Thursday by the Urban Development Department.

The frontrunners

• Ritu Tawde, a two-time corporator from Ghatkopar who joined the BJP from Congress in 2012.
• Alka Kerkar, a three-time Bandra West corporator with close links to the RSS and former deputy mayor.
• Rajeshree Shirwadkar, a third-term Sion corporator.

Party insiders say the selection will balance organisational priorities with electoral strategy, as the BJP returns to the mayor’s chair after nearly 40 years — the last BJP mayor being Dr Prabhakar Pai in the 1980s.

Other names in contention include Tejasvee Ghosalkar from Dahisar, a former Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator seen as a tactical choice linked to deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s plan to mark the birth centenary of late Bal Thackeray.

Additional possibilities include Harshita Narvekar from Fort, Priti Satam from Goregaon, Yogita Koli from Malad, Shital Gambhir from Mahim, and Swapna Mhatre from Bandra West.