NCP leaders want to go solo in TMC polls

NCP workers in Thane have communicated this demand to the party’s senior leadership, according to Najeeb Mulla, president of the Thane unit of the NCP

THANE: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, the local leadership of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has now also sought to contest the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) elections independently.

NCP leaders want to go solo in TMC polls

NCP workers in Thane have communicated this demand to the party’s senior leadership, according to Najeeb Mulla, president of the Thane unit of the NCP. Similar demands have previously been made by workers of the BJP and Shiv Sena, the NCP’s allies in the Mahayuti government.

The NCP workers’ demand comes days after the BJP’s state president, Ravindra Chavan, announced on Friday that all parties of the Mahayuti alliance would contest the local body elections together. However, NCP president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has not issued an official statement regarding his party’s stand on the matter yet.

By contesting the municipal elections independently, Ajit Pawar’s NCP intends to challenge the stronghold of three-term MLA Jitendra Awhad from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction. Party leaders believe that fighting alone would help them consolidate support, particularly among the Muslim-dominated voter base in Kalwa and Mumbra.

During the 2024 assembly elections, Mulla defected from the Sharad Pawar faction and joined the Ajit Pawar-led NCP to contest against Awhad, but lost. However, Mulla believes the dynamics of the assembly elections and municipal elections are different.

“While the Mahayuti is united at the state level, to ensure better representation for our party workers, we need to contest the municipal elections independently. Although we are part of the alliance, our ideologies differ. As a party that was earlier larger than the BJP, we believe we deserve a greater number of seats, which may not be possible within the Mahayuti. Our voters in Kalwa and Mumbra do not align with the ideology of alliance partners, which is why we have decided to go solo,” he said.

In the previous municipal elections held in 2017, the undivided Shiv Sena had won 67 seats, the undivided NCP had secured 34 seats, while the BJP won 23 seats. Seat-sharing within the Mahayuti is expected to involve intense negotiations and could emerge as a major point of contention, with all three parties likely to stake claim to a large number of seats.

Of the former corporators, 82 are currently with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. On that basis, the Shinde faction may demand a larger share of seats in Thane. Over the past eight years, the BJP has significantly strengthened its organisational presence across the state and may also seek a higher number of seats in Thane.