As India awaits the poll results as to who would head the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), it is important to understand its role as the nation’s richest civic body. With counting underway, the fight seems to have concentrated on the two ‘Senas’ groups—BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the recenly united Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
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Most of it has to do with the Mumbai civi body’s record budget and spending power. Eleven months ago, when the BMC announced its budget for FY2025-2026, it also doubled down on its "rich" status. In fact, the spending even rivals that of several smaller states.
For the current fiscal, BMC had then proposed its highest-ever budget of about Rs 74,427 crore, up roughly 14 per cent from the previous year’s estimate of around Rs 65,181 crore.
Nearly Rs 43,000 crore, or close to 60 per cent of this budget, was earmarked for capital expenditure on long-term projects such as roads, the coastal road, and sewage treatment plants, according to reports.
Many noted how the BMC budget size was larger than the annual budgets of several small Indian states. For the same fiscal, Goa’s spending was earmarked at Rs 28,162 crore, Arunachal Pradesh at Rs 39,842 crore, Sikkim at Rs 16,196 crore, and Tripura at Rs 31,412 crore.
And it is not just capex or budget; even the revenue estimates were staggering. Two years ago, BMC’s revenue outlook for fiscal 2024-2025 was Rs 35,749 crore. They later revised it upwards to Rs 40,694 crore as collections improved. But where does BMC get this money? Multiple reports say major income sources include octroi compensation grants from the state government, property tax, development charges, premiums for additional FSI, water and sewerage charges, and interest on large investments.
In contrast, Delhi and Bengaluru civic bodies reportedly operate on budgets ranging from Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore. It is the leadership battle for this civic body that now has national attention.
Currently, the BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) faction is in the lead, while Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) group are fighting to catch up. The Congress, however, has yet to get much headway.
Maharashtra civic-body elections 2026 counting began at 10 am on Friday, with 15,931 candidates contesting for 2,969 seats across 29 municipal corporations.
