Desk Correspondent , Mumbai - The battle for the Mumbai Mayorship has moved from the polling booths to the high-stakes corridors of luxury hotels, as Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena engages in a tense internal tug-of-war with the BJP. Despite the Mahayuti alliance’s landslide victory in the BMC elections, securing 118 seats (89 for BJP and 29 for Shinde Sena), a definitive consensus on leadership remains elusive. In a dramatic show of "resort politics," Shinde has moved his block of corporators to a luxury hotel in Bandra, officially for a "training workshop" but reportedly to keep them safe from poaching attempts by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).

Adding fuel to the fire, the Shinde faction has signaled it will play hardball for a proportional share of power in India’s richest civic body. Party insiders suggest they are demanding the first 2.5-year mayoral term and chairmanship of the influential Standing Committee, which controls the BMC's massive budget. In response to the sequestration, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut issued a "jail jibe," accusing Shinde of turning the hotel into a "prison" out of fear. "They broke away the MLAs, so now they have to keep the corporators confined as well. Eknath Shinde has turned the hotel into a jail," Raut remarked, calling for their immediate release.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has sought to play down the friction, asserting that the decision will be collective and that Mumbai will have a consensus "Mahayuti Mayor." However, with the Shinde faction holding the "veto power" needed to cross the majority mark of 114, the negotiations are expected to be protracted. As the city awaits the official mayoral reservation lottery, Shinde remains defiant, dismissing poaching fears by stating, "Shiv Sena does not get scared; it scares others." For now, the "Taj negotiations" continue to keep Mumbai in suspense, proving that the victory was only the beginning of a complex power-sharing struggle.