Mumbai, Jan 17: Rebel candidates and political turncoats faced a clear voter rejection in the 2026 civic polls. Independents challenging official nominees failed across the board, while most former corporators
who switched parties in search of tickets were rejected at the ballot box.
Turncoats fail to retain support
After the split in the Shiv Sena, several corporators from the Thackeray faction joined the Shinde-led Sena and the BJP in search of tickets. Some managed to secure nominations as rival parties sought to capitalise on their local popularity to swing seats.
While a few, such as Trushna Vishwasrao, Vanita Narvankar and Tejasvee Ghosalkar of Shiv Sena (UBT), managed to win, many others faced voter rejection.
Corporators such as Rajul Patel, Anil Kokil, Nana Ambole, Sujata Sanap, Raju Pednekar, Priti Patankar and Geeta Gawali, who joined the Shinde Sena, were defeated.
Rebel bids fall flat
Meanwhile, rebel candidates were badly defeated, failing to split votes or pose any serious threat to official party nominees. Nehal Shah, a former corporator from Ward 177 (Matunga), filed her nomination against the BJP’s Kalpesh Kothari after being denied a ticket, but Kothari went on to win by a comfortable margin of 9,208 votes.
In Ward 95 (Bandra), rebel Chandrashekhar Waingankar was easily defeated by Shiv Sena (UBT) former corporator Hari Shastri. In Ward 202, former UBT shakha pramukh Vijay Indulkar contested as an independent after the party ticket was awarded to former corporator Shraddha Jadhav, who went on to win with an even larger margin.
Other rebels, including Sujata Jagtap, Suryakant Koli, Anisha Majgaonkar and Tejal Pawar, also failed to challenge official candidates in their respective wards.
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Rebel candidates vs winners
. Ward 159: Kamalakar Naik → Pravina Morajkar (Shiv Sena–UBT)
. Ward 193: Suryakant Koli → Hemangi Worlikar (Shiv Sena–UBT)
. Ward 194: Sonal Pawar → Nishikant Shinde (Shiv Sena–UBT)
. Ward 196: Sangeeta Jagtap → Padmaja Chemburkar (Shiv Sena–UBT)
. Ward 197: Shravani Desai → Vanita Narvankar (Shiv Sena–Shinde)
. Ward 226: Tejal Pawar → Makarand Narwekar (BJP)
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