Mumbai conspiracy: BJP leader stokes communal fears over birth rates
Mumbai conspiracy: BJP leader stokes communal fears over birth rates
M.U.H
06/11/202616
Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya has once again targeted the Muslim community, this time claiming they are taking over Mumbai’s demography.
In a post on X, the former BJP MP said it was a “conspiracy for ‘Muslim Mumbai'” that the birth ratio in Maharashtra’s capital is three Hindu children to two Muslim children.
Sharing a data table categorising live births based on religion, Somaiya said as many as 48,554 Muslim children were born in 2025 as compared to 70,380 Hindu children.
‘Won’t be long until Marathi Mumbai becomes Muslim Mumbai’
With the current rate at which Muslim fertility is rising, two Muslim children are being born for every three Hindu children, he said. “It won’t take long for our Marathi Mumbai to become Muslim Mumbai,” Somaiya wrote in a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Call for a demography committee
He said that just as the Indian government has an appointed committee to study demographic changes, the Maharashtra government must form a group that addresses Mumbai’s demographic change.
“We know that after India gained Independence in 1947, the number of Muslims in Mumbai city had reduced to less than 10 per cent. In the 2011 census, the number of Muslims in Mumbai was 20 pc, which is expected to increase to 25 pc today and 31 pc in 2051,” he said, attributing the information to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Somaiya added that in the last five years, while 3.36 lakh Hindu births were recorded, 2.20 lakh Muslim children were born. Citing the data, Somaiya urged Fadnavis to set up a demographic committee to “save Mumbai from becoming Muslim Mumbai.”
He concluded the letter stating, “On one hand, the fertility rate is high, and on the other hand, the encroachment/invasion of Mumbai by Bangladeshis, Rohingyas, and Muslims from the north continues.”
BMC data shows inaccuracy in Somaiya’s claims
Many users in the comments were quick to point out that the BJP leader’s data was incorrect, as official information from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) shows a different estimate. The BMC Diary recorded a total of 1,17,606 live births in Mumbai in 2025, which is roughly a thousand fewer births than what Somaiya’s data said.
Kirit Somaiya has repeatedly targeted Muslims in Maharashtra through communal rhetoric, often making claims without evidence. In September, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cut off the water supply to a mosque following Somaiya’s campaign against it. He had accused it of being part of “land jihad”, a conspiracy theory propagated by the extreme Hindu right wing, accusing Muslims of orchestrated land grabbing.
In July, he branded a school in Mumbai as an “unauthorised madrasa” and said it was a prime example of “school jihad.”
