Ritu Tawde | Mayor rising

Ritu Tawde, the 78th Mayor of Mumbai, took charge this week in the historic heritage hall at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters. She is the second BJP mayor and the eighth woman mayor of South Asia’s richest civic body. With a saffron turban and sari, she assumed office after Bhushan Gagrani, the current BMC Commissioner, stepped down. The BJP holds 89 seats in the 227-member House, while its ally, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, secured 29 seats. This is significantly lower than the tally of the Shiv Sena group led by Uddhav Thackeray, who contested the BMC for the first time since the 2022 split.