India, May 7 -- The forthcoming BMC polls, enabled by the Supreme Court's Tuesday order permitting the holding of local body elections in Maharashtra, are set to be one of the most significant civic elections ever for both political parties and Mumbai citizens who have not had a voice in three years.

On the political front, the elections will be a battle of survival for the Shiv Sena (UBT) and its chief Uddhav Thackeray, and a matter of prestige for deputy CM Eknath Shinde and CM Devendra Fadnavis who want to end the 'Thackeray era' in Mumbai. On the civic front, they will bring back the checks and balances in the governance of the country's richest civic body with a budget over Rs.74,000 crore.

The five-year term of the BMC's elected b...