Six Maharashtra assembly election losers contesting Mumbai civic body polls

Mumbai: Six candidates who lost the assembly election in 2019 or 2014 are now contesting the BMC polls. Two from the family of MLAs who lost the assembly polls are also trying their luck in the BMC election. Many of them are former corporators who contested the 2024 assembly elections and lost.Among those contesting is Shiv Sena's Yamini Jadhav, who was defeated from Byculla in the 2024 assembly election. She also contested the election from the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency and lost. She is now contesting the BMC election from Ward No. 209 in Byculla.Praveena Morajkar contested the election from the Kurla assembly constituency on a Shiv Sena (UBT) ticket. After her defeat there, she is now a Sena (UBT) candidate from Ward No. 169 (Kurla).Political observers said that since the BMC election is happening after a gap of eight years, there is high demand for a ticket. "Since the BMC polls this time are a multi-cornered contest, former MLAs flexed their muscle and used their clout to get tickets. Since parties too could not find formable candidates, they went with former MLAs who have some recall value. Since NCP is not in Mahayuti and Congress is not in MVA as they are fighting alone, there was a scramble for seats. Senior netas used this chance to flex muscle and get tickets. They managed to convince the party that there was no alternative. Parties too conceded as they didn't want to take any risk," a political observer said.In two wards, kin of candidates who were defeated are in the fray. Former Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Vinod Ghosalkar was defeated in the Dahisar assembly seat in 2024. Now his son, Saurabh Ghosalkar, is contesting the election from Ward No. 7 (Dahisar) for Shiv Sena (UBT). Former Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar faced defeat from the Mahim assembly constituency. Now his daughter, Priya Gurav Sarvankar, is contesting the election from Ward No. 191 (Mahim) on a Shiv Sena ticket. Sada Sarvankar's son, former corporator Samadhan Sarvankar, is also fighting the BMC polls from Ward No. 194 (Worli)."This also shows the importance of the BMC polls. The BMC has a massive budget and a major role in the city's politics and economy. So even senior netas don't mind jumping in the fray after losing Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Compared to MLAs from the rest of Maharashtra, BMC corporators have a bigger budget and local development funds. So no one wants to let go of the chance," the observer said.