Mumbai: The race for the BJP’s Mumbai unit president is heating up. At least five senior party leaders from the city are in the running for the post which is considered crucial with BMC elections only a few months away.According to sources, those in the reckoning include Marathi leaders such as ex-MLA from Borivli Sunil Rane, who is considered close to CM Devendra Fadnavis, MLC and BJP group leader in the council Pravin Darekar, Kandivli East MLA Atul Bhatkalkar, and Andheri West MLA Ameet Satam. The lone Gujarati in the fray is Chandivli MLA Yogesh Sagar, sources said.The current city unit president, Ashish Shelar, is now a cabinet minister. The party policy allows for ‘one man one post,’ so Shelar will be replaced. Sources said that with BMC elections approaching, the Mumbai president will most probably be a Marathi, and chances of a Maratha leading in the city are more likely since CM Devendra Fadnavis belongs to the Brahmin community. Also, BJP in the last BMC general body had the highest number of corporators—45—in the Andheri-Dahisar belt.“It is no surprise those in the fray are all from this belt,” party sources said.BJP recently completed its membership drive and will soon be electing the state president and later the national president. For this, leaders (presidents) at different levels of the party need to be appointed. With SC directing the state election commission to conduct local body elections, BMC elections are likely to be held in Oct or Nov, said party sources, adding the party structure needs to be in place quickly.At the city unit’s core committee meet on Wednesday, sources said it was decided to increase the number of mandals in each assembly constituency from one to three. This will take the number of mandals from 36 to 108. The number of mandal presidents will increase proportionately. Besides, the party has one district president for each of the Lok Sabha constituencies; there are six LS constituencies in Mumbai. There will be one president for each electoral civic ward; BMC has 227 electoral wards.Sources said the party has decided to give more representation to younger workers. Thus, those appointed at the ward level will be less than 40 years old, at the mandal level less than 45, and at the district level less than 60 years old.