What defines the current political landscape of Maharashtra, and Mumbai in particular, is the high-decibel intersection of Hindutva and Marathi Asmita or pride. The primary contest in this year’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election has solidified into a high-stake battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti and a reunited Shiv Sena (UBT)-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) alliance. Other political outfits, once central to the narrative, now appear relatively marginal in this polarised urban theatre.Battle of identitiesA comparative analysis suggests that the Shiv Sena (UBT) holds a historical advantage over the BJP. This stems from its decades-long role in sculpting Mumbai’s cultural identity and facilitating the political ascent of the Marathi-speaking population. However, BJP can inflict an impressive setback to this alliance, as it is equipped with newer promises of neo-liberal economic development, strategic social engineering and Hindutva-nationalist appeal.Over the last decade, the BJP has also built a robust organisational machine in Mumbai, successfully courting the upwardly mobile Marathi middle classes. Despite this, in the eyes of many locals, the party is still stigmatised as a vehicle for non-Marathi interests, specifically those of North Indian migrants and Gujarati business communities.This demographic limitation was starkly evident in the 2024 Assembly election, where the BJP faced setbacks in several key urban clusters of Mumbai, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) maintained its dominance by winning a majority of the seats.BJP’s social engineeringTo bypass these electoral bottlenecks, the BJP is attempting to forge a strategic social collective. This coalition aims to bridge four distinct groups: the Marathi middle classes, North Indian migrants, Dalits and the Gujarati business elite. Such a rainbow alliance is a direct strike against the ‘uni-dimensional’ hyper-Marathi politics the Thackeray cousins represent.Also read: Communalism, an IPL Team and Confusing Alliances: How the Maharashtra Municipal Polls Are Playing OutA critical component of the BJP’s strategy is its outreach to the Dalits, who hold the balance of power in around 60 municipal wards. By positioning Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale as a visible partner and fast-tracking the International Ambedkar Memorial coming up at Indu Mills (scheduled for completion in late 2026), the BJP hopes to project a pro-social justice image.However, the opposition successfully counters this by framing the BJP as an entity representing elite-caste interests, potentially safeguarding its own political agency by driving Dalit voters towards the Thackeray-led alliance.The BJP appears to be on a strong wicket here, but a vast majority in Mumbai are politically groomed by the politics of Marathi Asmita and remembers their emotive connection with the Balasaheb Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena. Brothers Uddhav and Raj Thackeray represent this grand legacy, which has survived several rounds of turmoil, including the split in the party in 2022, orchestrated by Eknath Shinde, the current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and chairman of the Shiv Sena. A significant section of the Marathi speaking population trusts the Thackeray brothers in electoral battles.As an opponent facing the combined Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the BJP will have to deal with the deep emotional connection that the Sena has nurtured over a long time with voters. The BJP lacks the ideological apparatus to offer a better alternative to this emotive political consciousness established by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS’s robust political activism.Sena legacyThe Sena influences voters in Mumbai on three major fronts. First, it links Marathi identity with the Shiv Sena’s past, and asserts that Thackeray’s leadership shaped the podium on which the Marathi people could foster and express their political voice. The Sena positions itself as the true inheritor of Marathi pride, and, within it, Thackeray as an iconic figure who dominated Mumbai’s socio-cultural imagination – and its political spaces – for four decades.His mythical legacy and rousing political slogans still connect the Sena with Marathis, and create in them an identity shaped around pride and self-esteem.Even after the Shiv Sena split, the social base of the Marathi heartland did not substantively drift away. The recent reunion of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray has reinforced this tendency, restoring the ‘Thackeray brand’ as the ultimate symbol of pride for the ordinary Shiv Sainik (or ground worker of the Sena).Also read: Mahayuti’s Unopposed Victories, Locality-Based Alliances, ‘Bribes’: The Civic Poll Chaos in MaharashtraSecondly, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS’s Hindutva is more radical and militant than that of the BJP: more visceral compared to the BJP’s institutionalised version. Urban Hindu youth is often more inspired by the Sena’s street-fighter posture and linguistic affinity than by the BJP’s top-down activism.On the everyday political front, the BJP’s approach is milder and more sophisticated than the Sena. The Sena grabs the limelight on most issues raised by the right, especially the anti-Pakistan rhetoric, with flash demonstrations on the streets and violently unconstitutional protests. MNS has routinely used similar tactics of street fighting and sensationalism to make its presence felt in Mumbai and to mobilise supporters. It has an immediate impact and keeps the Shiv Sena alive in public memory.Thirdly, the Shiv Sena has impressively well-knit social networking amongst the lower-middle-class groups and in the slums. It prepares activists and cadres through daily engagement in various socio-political and cultural functions. Unlike the rigid ideological focus of the RSS shakhas, the Shiv Sena’s shakha network operates as a grassroots social hub. It resolves local disputes, familial, economic or legal, creating a deep-seated camaraderie that makes the party feel like an extension of the family rather than an instrumental political unit.Also read: Twenty Years After Parting Ways, Raj and Uddhav Thackeray Hint at Potential Reunion for ‘Greater Good’Such camaraderie is absent in RSS shakhas. BJP units are more mechanical and disciplined, designed to preach Hindutva ideology or mobilise activists for socio-political functions. Thackeray’s Sena is more like a social organisation, dedicated in hyper-religious and cultural activities and utilises that association for political mobilisations.BJP’s limitations in MumbaiThe BJP has undoubtedly emerged as a dominant force in Maharashtra, leveraging a disciplined organisation and the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In Mumbai, its vision of a global metropolis anchored by the Coastal Road and metro networks, serves as a powerful counter-narrative to traditional nativist protectionism. However, rhetoric of economic development alone may struggle to bridge the emotional deficit the party faces among the Marathi core.The political landscape in 2026 is uniquely defined by the Thackeray brothers’ recent reunion, which has effectively re-centered Marathi Asmita as the primary electoral idiom. While the BJP can match the new Sena alliance on Hindutva, it lacks a historical mythos that resonates with the local ‘street’ as deeply as the Thackeray legacy. What is more, the BJP’s ‘social engineering’, designed to pull Dalit and subaltern voters via leaders like Athawale, faces a stiff challenge from an opposition that frames the BJP as a party of the elite-caste business elites.Unless the BJP can transform its ‘outsider’ identity into a localised and emotionally resonant Marathi-ness, the unified Shiv Sena UBT-MNS front remains the formidable force to challenge the Hindutva party in the BMC election.