Mumbai: The BMC elections were marked by overt religious rhetoric, but political parties adopted a pragmatic approach to raise their tallies by fielding candidates across religious lines. While one of AIMIM’s eight newly corporators is a dalit, Vijay Ubale (33) from Govandi, both Shiv Sena factions propped up several Muslim candidates. Two of Sena (UBT)’s Muslim candidates won.Many winners said they focused on the work on the ground rather than leaning into religious or linguistic identity politics. “We placed the Constitution ahead and talked about social justice. So, we didn’t feel there was any issue during the campaign. Now, ST and SC communities are finding a connect with AIMIM,” said Ubale. Ubale is among the poorest BMC corporators, with total assets of Rs 1.5 lakh and no house in his name. He had worked as a local AIMIM office bearer since 2022 and expressed his desire to contest this election. The party, he said, responded positively. He won by 1,523 votes, beating Sena’s Sonali Jadhav and Sena (UBT)’s Siddharth Usture. The seat was won by undivided NCP in 2017. In Vikhroli’s ward 124, Sena (UBT)’s Sakina Ayub Shaikh defeated by a big margin Sena’s Jyoti Khan, who had secured the seat in 2017 on an NCP ticket. Shaikh was at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar on Sunday for a meeting with senior party leaders.Another minority community corporator of Sena (UBT) is Zeeshan Changez Multani from ward 62, which was won in 2017 by his family member, Multani Changej Jamal, who contested as an independent. Sena (UBT) roped in Jamal this time to ensure the defeat of party rebel Raju Pednekar, a former Thackeray loyalist who contested and lost the 2024 assembly polls as an independent after his request for a ticket was denied. Pednekar is now with Sena. Although Sena’s Muslim candidates did not hand it any win, they gave a good fight in some places. In ward 92 (Bharat Nagar near BKC), candidate Salim Qureshi lost to Congress despite deputy CM Eknath Shinde himself campaigning for him. “The work done on the ground matters. Shinde saheb came for my campaign and promised to resolve one of the issues and it was addressed immediately,” said Qureshi, whose wife won the seat for AIMIM in 2017.
