The seat-sharing talks between BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have hit a roadblock, with the latter demanding 100 of the 227 seats for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election.
The election to BMC and 28 other municipal corporations in Maharashtra is set to take place on January 15 and results will be declared the next day. After the Mahayuti government’s success in the recent municipal council elections, both BJP and Shinde-led Shiv Sena are in aggressive mode. The ruling alliance bagged 207 posts of municipal presidents and 4,422 seats in the municipal council and nagar panchayat polls.
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BJP was initially willing to give just 52 seats to its ally. However, Shiv Sena told the saffron party that they had interviewed candidates for all 227 seats, hinting that if a respectable seat-sharing deal was not offered, it was willing to go on its own.
Meanwhile, after Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray announced their alliance for the BMC polls, BJP went on the backfoot and decided to give more seats to Shiv Sena.
Twenty years after a bitter Raj Thackeray quit the undivided Shiv Sena over differences with Uddhav Thackeray and formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the cousins announced their alliance on December 24. The BJP is now worried whether Marathi voters will be swayed by the emotional appeal made by the Thackerays.
Uddhav Thackeray has been telling his cadre to spread the message – ‘Chukal Tar Sampal’ – among voters that if they make the mistake of voting for BJP candidates, the Marathi people would lose their control over Mumbai once the BJP wins.
BJP has now offered 70 seats to Shiv Sena, but Shinde’s party is firm on its demand for 100 seats.
Meanwhile, the MNS and Shiv Sena (UBT) are yet to resolve the deadlock over a couple of seats for the BMC polls as both parties enjoy influence in those areas of the city, a PTI report said.
Bhandup and Vikhroli in the eastern suburbs are the areas where both Uddhav Thackeray's Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray's MNS have a strong presence.
In the last BMC polls in 2017, the then undivided Shiv Sena had won in 84 of the city's 227 wards, followed by the BJP (82). The MNS had bagged seven seats.
(With inputs from Dnyanesh V. Jathar)