The logic behind the machinations is this: If mayor elections are held on March 8, when last phase of polling will be on in UP, the Congress will not be able to support ‘communal’ Sena, giving BJP a stab at power
Uddhav Thackeray
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The BJP manages to have its way yet again. After a day of back and forth between the Shiv Sena and BJP over the mayoral election date - originally scheduled for March 9 by the municipal secretariat - it has finally been pushed forward by a day. With this move, the BJP has effectively shut the door on a Sena-Congress tie-up, as it is also the day of the UP polls wherein aligning with a saffron party could seriously hurt Congress’ chances. Incidentally, March 8 is the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh polls, where Congress and the ruling Samajwadi Party are alliance partners.
Devendra Fadnavis
While the Sena was insistent that the civic body sticks to the original March 9 date, there was buzz in the municipal corridors that the BJP wanted the election to be held on March 8 — the last phase of Uttar Pradesh polls. The idea was simple: Despite Congress’ repeated claim that it will neither support the Sena or the BJP, come day after UP polls, it could decide to tactically support the Sena if it meant keeping BJP at bay, and with this shift, that possibility has been eliminated since the Congress won’t risk it.
Sanjay Nirupam
Changing stances
So in what could be a massive blow to the Sena, a senior BMC official on condition of anonymity confirmed to mid-day that the election to select the mayor will now be held on March 8. However, he refuted the charges that the dates had been rescheduled under pressure or to favour any party.
Rahul Gandhi has been campaigning for the UPâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088polls while Sanjay Nirupam has been holding down the fort in Mumbai
“The existing corporators’ term ends on March 8. The mayor is the presiding officer for the house. Hence, by calling for election on March 9, it would have created a technical glitch. This is the reason for pushing the election to March 8,” explained the civic official. Interestingly, on Wednesday morning, the exact opposite explanation was given by a civic official to justify the need to stick to the original dates for the election, as the house has technically not been dissolved and so the new elected corporators couldn’t come in to the house choose their mayor. Now, to bypass that issue from the existing lot of corporators (those elected in 2012), the civic body is planning to only invite the newly elected corporators.
Parties speak out
While BJP city unit president Ashish Shelar was not available for comment, a senior party functionary said, “Those who fear losing the mayoral polls are spreading rumours that it was the BJP pushing for the election on March 8. There is no truth in it.”
On the other hand, when contacted, one of the Sena leader handling party affairs for the civic polls, stated that under Uddhav’s leadership, the party is only growing. “The mayor election day has been advanced, but the BJP will not succeed in its efforts to keep the Sena away from Mumbai’s first citizen seat,” the senior Sena functionary added.
Meanwhile, Congress city president Sanjay Nirupam claimed that Sena and BJP are two sides of a coin. “For Congress, both are communal forces. We keep equal distance from both. Also, Congress is contesting for mayoral post too, so there is no question of giving tactical support to either of the saffron party,” Nirupam said.
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