Maharashtra is seeing a flurry of political meetings ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, to be held on January 15. Taking place after five years, the crucial polls will pave the way for a number of tasks that could not be taken up so far as the civic body was in place. Terms of members expired long back and with a new schedule for elections in place, the parties are rushing up to finalise seat-sharing deals with their alliance partners. The biggest update is the return of Thackeray cousins, and this has changed the poll plan for all.
The BJP and Eknath Shinde‘s Shiv Sena have not reached the deal yet as reports say Shinde faction has sought more than what BJP is agreeing to offer. A total of 227 wards across 29 corporations are up for grabs in the BMC elections.
The Mahayuti picture
The BJP, Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP are the Mahayuti allies, and so far, none of them has announced contesting elections alone. Ajit Pawar has not mentioned if the party will not contest also, continuing the suspense on the matter. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, meanwhile, held meetings to decide who will fight on how many seats.
The buzz is that BJP wanted Sena to contest on 52 wards, then it upped it to 90 against a demand of 125. Now, Shinde has come down to 112, and another round of meetings is likely to take place soon, reported NDTV. Shinde, if reports are to be believed, is not happy about the numbers being offered to him.
The recent Maharashtra civic polls is also affecting the talks as BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 117 seats, Shinde Sena won 53 and Ajit Pawar’s NCP bagged 37.
Maha Vikas Aghadi not going as an alliance?
As for the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Congress has decided to go solo in the BMC elections. The decision comes after the party’s stellar performance in Kerala local body elections. However, the dynamics in Maharashtra are different. The party recently faced massive defeat in Bihar, and an attempt to go solo in another BJP-led NDA ruled state is a challenging task the grand-old party has taken.
And, the most crucial development is coming together of Uddhav Thackeray and his brother Raj Thackeray. They have decided to contest BMC polls together. Though no deal is out yet, the Uddhav Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) alliance has formed another front this time.
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Reacting to this, Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said, “There is no question of protesting against Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS alliance, it is their decision; we are all ready to contest alone.”
In the 2017 BMC Elections, the then undivided Shiv Sena won 84 of the city’s 227 wards, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 82 seats, while the MNS secured seven seats.
To tighten the battleground, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) are also fighting the elections.
The voting for the BMC elections will take place on Jan 15 and the results will be announced a day later, on January 16.
