‘Mahayuti to contest BMC poll as united front’

The Mahayuti will fight as one front in the city but unity beyond Mumbai remains uncertain The move clearly shows that the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP and Eknath Shindeled Shiv Sena want to avoid splitting votes and to take on the Thackeray cousins who are expected to focus on the emotive Marathi identity issue which will play a key role in the pollsParty leaders close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have confirmed that the BJP Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawarheaded Nationalist Congress Party NCP will be allied for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC pollsOn Wednesday speaking to a group of reporters in Mumbai a veteran Maharashtra BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity ldquoFor the BMC poll the Mahayuti will contest as one united frontrdquoElections to the BMC 28 other municipal corporations and other local bodies are expected to take place before January 31 2026 as per the Supreme Courtrsquos deadline The last BMC election was held in 2017 and corporatorsrsquo fiveyear term ended in 2022In 2017 the undivided Shiv Sena had bagged 84 seats in the BMC just two more than the BJPrsquos tallyFor more than 25 years Shiv Sena undivided and BJP had been ruling the BMC However in 2017 the saffron alliance came to an end and both parties contested separatelyIn 2022 a split was engineered by Shinde and more than half of Uddhav Thackerays corporators joined the new factionNow the BJP isnrsquot leaving any stone unturned to meet its longterm goal of wielding power singlehandedly in Asiarsquos richest civic bodyMission 100plusThe BJP leadership has made it clear that the development not the Marathi language row would be its agenda for the civic election The senior leader maintained that the party expects to win 100 seats and the number might increase depending on how many seats it gets to contestMayorrsquos postBJP leaders stunned everyone with a statement that nothing had been decided by the party on who would stake a claim on the coveted mayorrsquos postldquoNothing has been decided about the mayoral post One cannot rule out a mayor from Shindersquos camp toordquo the BJP leader said claiming that for now winning Mumbai was the goal and the candidate for the mayorrsquos post could be decided after the electionsThane situationThe BJP has put the ball in Shindersquos court regarding whether to contest as an ally or go solo for the Thane Municipal Corporation pollSpeaking about municipal corporations especially that of Thane a city known to be Shindersquos bastion the BJP leader admitted there was ambiguity on whether both parties would contest as allies or separately ldquoWe have left it to Shinde to assess which is the better option Whatever decision Shinde takes we will act accordinglyrdquo the BJP leader said during the candid conversationErrors but no bogus votingThe state leadership of the BJP is of the opinion that the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA and Raj Thackerayled Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS are trying to spin a narrative by raising doubts over the electoral rolls There are certainly problems such as missing names duplications and factual mistakes in the voter lists ldquoBut these have been there for a long time I have personally demanded a complete revision of the electoral rolls But the Opposition is levelling charges that the BJP is doing this for its own gain It is completely wrong and is being done to spread a narrative Let the Opposition come out with cases where people have voted at two places at a time Also how many objections did the Opposition make on voting day and after the elections I am sure the Opposition has not taken any efforts and is now levelling charges as it has no other issue to raiserdquo the leader added