BJP has expressed its willingness to form an alliance with Shiv Sena for the municipal corporation elections based on a common agenda, but has demanded 'transparency' in governance. An obvious indication is that Shiv Sena, while running BMC — the richest municipal corporation — did not follow the norms of transparency. Shiv Sena, on the other hand, has completely ignored the demand and has formed a panel of its leaders to discuss possible terms of alliance with BJP. Anil Desai (MP), Anil Parab and Ravi Mirlekar will discuss the alliance possibilities with Ashish Shelar and Vinod Tawde of BJP.
Shiv Sena has reiterated its position that the discussions will not be held on the terms set by BJP. BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said, “Mumbai needs to be free of mafia. They exercise control over water distribution, slums, solid waste management, roads construction. BJP will fight them out irrespective of the alliance.” Earlier, Somaiya had squarely blamed Shiv Sena for all the corruption in the BMC. An outraged group of Shiv Saniks had even tried to attack Somaiya after his allegations. Uddhav Thackeray said, “We have fought against leaders who ditched us and against relatives. But this time, we may have to fight against unfaithful friends.”
Ramdas Athawale, union minister & Republican party leader, has appealed to both the parties to form an alliance. He said, “We want 25 seats if the alliance is formed, but we will fight 60 seats if the alliance is not formed. We will prefer to go with BJP if the bigger alliance does not happen.” NCP has already announced its first list of 45 candidates while SP has declared 24 candidates. BMC, along with nine other municipal corporations, will go for the polls on the February 21.
