'Daddy' Of Dadgi Chawl Suffers Huge Setback: Ex-Don Arun Gawli's Daughters Lose BMC Polls

Mumbai: The Gawli family suffered a major setback as both the daughters of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli lost the 2026 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Friday. Both Geeta Gawli and Yogita Gawli were candidates of Akhil Bharatiya Sena, a party founded by their father.

The defeat signalled a sharp decline in the family’s political influence in the capital city of Maharashtra. Arun Gawli, known as ‘Daddy' in Byculla's Dagdi Chawl, has been serving a life sentence in prison.

Geeta Gawli, who contested from Ward 212 in Byculla, lost to Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Amreen Shehzan Abrahani. Geeta had previously won the seat and was seen as a key face of the Gawli family’s hold over the Byculla belt. Her defeat marked a significant shift in the local political equation.

In another blow, Yogita Gawli was defeated by BJP candidate Rohidas Lokhande in Ward 207. Yogita was making her electoral debut and was hoping to revive the party’s presence through a first-time contest, but failed to gain sufficient voter support against the BJP candidate.

Meanwhile, BJP-Shiv Sena-led Mahayuti alliance secured a landslide victory in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country's richest civic body, ending the Thackeray family's 25-year-old-long stronghold on Mumbai. The much-anticipated reunion of Thackeray cousins- Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray- failed to show expected result in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Mumbai.

Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi thanked the people of Maharashtra for blessing the NDA's agenda of “pro-people good governance”.

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