Infighting within the Congress spilled into the open after the party’s poor performance in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and other civic body elections in Maharashtra, with senior leaders
publicly blaming each other for the defeat.
Following the Congress’s weak showing in 29 municipal corporations, former Mumbai Congress president Bhai Jagtap demanded the resignation of Congress MP and current Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad, deepening the internal rift within the party.
The public fallout gave the Bharatiya Janata Party an opening to attack the Congress, with BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla saying the blame game showed that the party’s losses were due to internal failures rather than any electoral malpractice.
“After losing the corporation elections in Maharashtra, Congress vs Congress has erupted,” he said. “This proves they lost because of ‘kaam chori’ and not ‘vote chori’. Rahul Gandhi’s false narrative stands exposed.”
Poonawalla also compared the situation in Maharashtra with factional disputes within the Congress elsewhere.
“In some states it is Shivakumar versus Siddaramaiah, in others Ashok Gehlot versus Sachin Pilot, and here it is Bhai Jagtap versus Varsha Gaikwad,” he said, adding that Congress now stood for “INC- I Need Confusion.”
The State Election Commission announced around midnight that results for all 227 wards of the BMC had been declared, sealing a major victory for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Mumbai’s fiercely contested civic battle.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, while its ally Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) won 29 seats, pushing the alliance past the majority mark in India’s richest civic body.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) secured 65 seats, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena won six, and the Congress, contesting in alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, managed just 24 seats.
AIMIM won eight seats, the NCP three, the Samajwadi Party two, and NCP (SP) was reduced to one seat.
Addressing party workers in south Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is set to form governments in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations where elections were held on January 15.
