India, Jan. 28 -- In November 2024, the Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) was left red-faced after losing the three assembly seats it had in the Vasai-Virar region to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance. However, 14 months after that crushing defeat, the BVA asserted its control over the region, winning 71 of the 115 seats in the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC).

The civic body governs 311 sq km of the Vasai-Virar belt, which is separated from Mumbai and Mira-Bhayandar by the Vasai Creek. It is home to an estimated population of 1.98 million people, including a sizable number that forms Mumbai's workforce. While Thakur, now 64, has dominated the region's politics since the 1990s, his party workers ...