'We Are Short By 6 Seats': Team Uddhav Says 'Wait And Watch' On Mumbai Mayor Race

While the numbers suggest a clear path for the Mahayuti Alliance, Sanjay Raut, the key troubleshooter for the Uddhav Thackeray faction, insists the race for the Mumbai Mayor's chair is far from over.

The BJP won 89 of the 227 wards, and its ally, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, took 29 in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, India's richest municipal body with an annual budget exceeding Rs 74,000 crore. With 118 corporators, the Mahayuti alliance crossed the majority mark of 114.

Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) finished second with 65 wards. Sanjay Raut believes that with the help of allies, the number stands at 108, just six shy of the majority mark.

Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had allied with the UBT just weeks before the election, won 6 seats. The Congress, in alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), took 24 seats. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 8, the Samajwadi Party 2, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) 3, and the Sharad Pawar faction 1.

Ajit Pawar's party is part of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra but fought the civic polls separately.

Raut insists that the contest, as he calls it, is tighter than it looks. It is 108 vs 118, according to him.

"We are currently at 108 with the UBT, MNS, Congress, and our allies," Raut told NDTV. "The target is 114. We are marginally short by just six seats. Just wait and watch, anything can happen in Mumbai politics."

The Thackeray party leader also took a sharp swipe at Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, a former party colleague before the two parties split, following reports that Shinde-Sena corporators have been moved to luxury hotels in Bandra and Kalyan-Dombivli.

"Our corporators are not hiding; they are at home, enjoying a normal life," Raut scoffed. "Shinde is living in fear. He has kept his people at three different hotels because he knows they are ready to switch sides. He left us because he feared the Enforcement Directorate; now he fears his own flock."

The leader suggested that the Shinde camp is struggling to keep its newly elected representatives from returning to the Thackeray fold.

"You can lock people in a hotel, but you cannot lock their minds. Many do not want to see a BJP Mayor in Mumbai," Raut, known for his sharp takedowns, added.

Dismissing the allegations, Team Shinde said 29 Sena corporators-elect have been moved to a five-star hotel in Mumbai to avoid poaching.

It is a training workshop for the newly elected members and an opportunity for Shinde to familiarise with them and tell them what he expects from them, party sources said, countering the charges.