The BJP taunted the Thackeray cousins on Wednesday after the panel jointly backed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) won zero seats in the BEST Employees’ Cooperative Credit Society election, while a rival BJP-backed panel led by BJP member and labour leader Shashank Rao won 14 seats out of a total of 21 seats.
Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) is a public body which provides electricity and public transportation services in Mumbai. BEST was originally established in 1873 as the Bombay Tramway Company Limited and later became an undertaking run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The election was held on August 18, 2025, and counting continued late into Tuesday night due to heavy rain. Despite the heavy downpour, BEST workers turned out in large numbers, ensuring an 83 per cent voter turnout. The BEST election was seen as a precursor as well as a trendsetter for the forthcoming local civic body elections in Mumbai as well as Maharashtra, and hence, politically significant.
“Zero plus zero is equal to zero. The Thackeray brand turned out to be zero in the BEST employees’ Cooperative Credit Society election. The bosses of the Thackeray brand could not even win a single seat. We have shown them their place. The tyres of the Thackeray brothers’ bus have been punctured,” BJP MLC Prasad Lad tweeted on his X handle, taunting the Thackeray cousins.
Maharashtra Minister for Information Technology and BJP leader Ashish Shelar stated that the BEST Employees’ Cooperative Credit Society (“patpedhi”) election win is a “good omen” for his party in Mumbai. “For the BJP, this is a positive sign from Mumbaikars. Workers and employees have backed us, while those fighting for ‘pat’ (credibility) and ‘pedhi’ (money) have been handed a big pumpkin. Once again, it is clear that workers and labourers are with us,” Shelar said in a social media post.
“Despite the election being conducted through ballot papers, we have won. So-called political analysts, experts alleging vote theft, and self-styled fearless speakers have been exposed. Mumbaikars are with us, and Mumbai is ours,” Shelar stated.
BJP’s Maharashtra state chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said that the BEST election outcome proved the waning influence of the Thackeray cousins. “Uddhav and Raj Thackeray came together, making a huge noise about the BEST election. It was portrayed as if their victory was a cakewalk. Yet the BEST cooperative, which was controlled by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for years, failed to win even a single seat despite joining hands with the MNS. This proves that Marathi people in Mumbai support the BJP’s development agenda and not the Thackeray brothers’ politics of sentiment. The BEST election has underscored that trend,” Upadhye said.
However, MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande alleged that cash was distributed to BEST voters during the elections. He had also screened a video showing how cash was given to BEST voters along with the pamphlet of the BJP-backed panel.
Reacting to the BEST election debacle, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s Suhas Samant said that he was surprised after the BEST poll results. “More than 12,000 employees support the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, but we still lost the polls. We fell short before money. The BEST election was held, but unfortunately, we lost. I congratulate those who won and request that in the last 9 years, we have taken the BEST Employees’ Cooperative Credit Society to great heights, which should be maintained. There was a huge influx of cash in this election, and we could not survive it. The entire system was dismantled using cash and officials. I have been with BEST employees for 25 years, and I know their pain. I will stay with the BEST employees and serve them.”
Yet, the BJP-backed panel led by BJP legislators Prasad Lad and Pravin Darekar denied Samant’s allegations and said that BEST employees “voted for change” because they were aware of corruption in the BEST Cooperative Credit Society for many years.