BJP to go solo in many municipal corporation polls in Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Fadnavis said fighting separately would work in their favour in areas where the ruling partners are in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots

MUMBAI: The three Mahayuti alliance partners in Maharashtra will contest at least four of the nine municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) together with a seat-sharing agreement, but may contest the remaining five corporations independently, people familiar with the matter said.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis with deputy chief ministers Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde at a fucntion in Mumbai (PTI FILE PHOTO)

Party leaders said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena were expected to team up to contest elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and the Panvel, Vasai-Virar, and Kalyan-Dombivali corporations.

But the BJP and Sena leaders do not want to fight elections in an alliance in other corporations in Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Mira-Bhayander.

The BJP, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena (SS), and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had earlier announced that the three partners would mainly contest the state’s 29 municipal corporations in an alliance. The elections are scheduled for January next year.

A senior BJP leader said the party has already conveyed to the Sena and the NCP that it does not want to contest the municipal elections in alliance in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur, and Mira-Bhayander corporations. In the case of Thane, the BJP is expected to let Eknath Shinde make a decision.

“In local bodies where the two ruling partners are on number one and two positions, we would like to go solo as it will work in our favour. Fighting separately will help us win more seats and then have a post-poll alliance after the elections. It will also help us to ensure that there is no space left for the opposition,” chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said during an interaction with reporters on Wednesday.

BJP leaders said that since Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray are fighting the municipal corporation elections in Mumbai as a team, it made sense for the Mahayuti allies to fight in an alliance as well. The BJP, which plans to contest about 155-160 seats, is expected to concede 60 to 70 seats to Shinde-led Sena and 10 seats to Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Ramdas Athwale’s RPI.

“In Thane, however, it would be difficult to fight the elections together as an alliance as both BJP and Shiv Sena have a similar strength and retaining the body is a prestige issue for Shinde. Secondly, there is a chance that aspirants from both parties may try to cross over to the Opposition if they are denied a ticket due to the alliance… In such a case, it would be in favour of the two parties to contest separately. Similarly, in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, where the BJP and Pawar’s NCP have similarly placed,” another BJP leader said.