BMC poll results: Congress leader demands Mumbai unit chief Varsha Gaikwad’s resignation

A day after the Congress logged its historically lowest tally in the Mumbai civic polls, a chronic factionalism resurfaced on Saturday (January 17, 2026), with a demand being raised for the resignation of the city unit president Varsha Gaikwad on moral grounds.

Mr. Gaikwad has come under fire after the Congress’s tally tumbled to 24 from 31 seats it had won in the 2017 elections to the 227-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The Congress didn’t ally with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents in the polls. It tied up with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), the RSP, and Republican Party of India (Gavai) to contest 152 seats. However, the allies drew a blank.

In the high-stakes elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrested control of the BMC from Uddhav Thackeray, ending his family’s three-decade-old dominance in the cash-rich civic body.

The BJP won 89 seats, and Shiv Sena won 29. In the Opposition camp, Shiv Sena (UBT) managed 65, and MNS won six seats. The AIMIM bagged eight seats, the NCP three, the Samajwadi Party two, and the NCP(SP) got just one seat. Former Mumbai Congress president and MLC Bhai Jagtap demanded that Gaikwad quit on moral grounds.

“When candidates were selected, I was told that tickets were distributed based on a survey. I didn’t object that time, but when I asked for the survey, it wasn’t shown to me,” he told PTI Videos, stressing that the Congress’s performance was a historical low.