The 227-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will go to the polls on January 15, 2026. The BMC is the nerve Centre of the Maximum City – shaping how India’s financial capital is governed, how its infrastructure evolves, and how the city imagines its future. The choices made now will define Mumbai’s direction for the next decade. With India’s richest civic body at stake, NDTV brings the battle for Mumbai into the national spotlight, with BMC Power Play on January 11 in Mumbai.
The contest for the BMC is about power, governance, and control of the institution that decisively influences everyday life in the city. It raises fundamental questions about leadership, accountability, urban priorities, and the balance of political influence in India’s most consequential metropolis.
‘The BMC election is an important event for Mumbai. The mandate that will emerge from it will influence how the city is governed, how it grows, and how its institutions are built. NDTV’s effort with BMC Power Play is to examine the elections with rigor and perspective – with voices that shape public life to help viewers understand what is truly at stake for the city and its people,’ said Rahul Kanwal, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, NDTV.
‘Mumbai’s civic elections are not just about who governs the city, but about how a global metropolis responds to the pressures of growth, infrastructure, equity, and accountability. BMC Power Play is an important platform to bring these issues into sharp public focus and to examine what kind of city Mumbai is becoming,’ said Jitendra Dixit, Executive Editor, NDTV Marathi.
BMC Power Play will feature a powerful cross-section of political voices, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other political heavyweights like Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Sanjay Raut, Shrikant Shinde, Praful Patel, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Amit Thackeray, Milind Deora, Nawab Malik, Vinod Tawde, Arvind Sawant, Shaina NC, Vagesh Saraswat, Sheetal Mhatre, Sana Malik, Sushma Andhare, and Surekha Sawalakhe, among other prominent voices central to Mumbai’s political discourse.
NDTV BMC Power Play will also bring together a multitude of other eminent Mumbaikars – stakeholders in the city’s existential narrative – seasoned observers, and citizen voices – to read the city as it stands today. Its mood. Its pressures. Its expectations. And the perspectives that will determine what comes next.
Across candid, pointed conversations, BMC Power Play will amplify the scale and consequence of this civic battle – with a lens on governance, leadership, and the lived realities of Mumbai.
NDTV BMC Power Play will air across the NDTV Network on 11 January, 2026