'Congress to appoint mayor after emerging single largest party in civic polls'

The Congress which became the single largest party in Maharashtrarsquos Chandrapur Municipal Corporation CMC last week will appoint its mayor and head the new civic administration senior leader Vijay Wadettiwar said on TuesdayAccording to the news agency PTI the Congress Legislature Party CLP leader asserted that his party has the necessary numbers to lead the civic body in the Vidarbha cityAddressing BJP claims that Congress corporators were in talks with them Wadettiwar dismissed the allegations as baseless ldquokiteflying in the airrdquo and said they lacked credibilityldquoOur first priority is to form a Congressled civic administration in Chandrapur and install a party Mayor We have the numbers needed for itrdquo he told reporters in Mumbai reported PTIWadettiwar emphasised that there was no scope for poaching corporators in Chandrapur and asserted that a Congress Mayor in the city was certain regardless of BJPs claimsThe CLP leader said the party wants a loyal and experienced corporator to be made the next Mayor He also hinted that some BJP corporators were in touch with the CongressldquoThe people of Chandrapur have given a clear mandate to the Congress in last weekrsquos civic polls and the party will work earnestly to live up to their expectationsrdquo the former state minister affirmedSix corporators of the Shiv Sena UBT a Congress ally at the state level were elected in Chandrapur where no party secured a clear majority in the civic pollsWadettiwar said discussions are underway to include them in an alliance as the two parties are constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA in the state PTI reportedThe Shiv Sena UBT has the right to stake a claim to the mayors post in Chandrapur he addedIn the 66member Chandrapur civic body the Congress won 27 seats followed by BJP 23 Shiv SenaUBT 6 BSP and Shiv Sena 1 each and others 8Chandrapur was among 29 major cities and towns in Maharashtra where municipal corporation polls were held on January 15 with votes counted the next dayAIMIM will never align with BJP says Asaduddin OwaisiAIMIM All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday dismissed any possibility of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP after his partyrsquos strong showing in the Maharashtra municipal elections remarking that ldquothe two shores of the sea can never meetrdquo news agency ANI reportedIn an exclusive interview with ANI Owaisi referred to a recent incident in Akot where AIMIM corporators had attempted to align with the BJP He said five AIMIM corporators were elected in Akot and had earlier been cautioned by the party leadershipOwaisi said the corporators initially claimed they were unaware that the group they had joined was linked to the BJP He added that the party subsequently directed them to immediately submit a letter to the municipal commissioner and withdraw their supportLook this cannot happen The two shores of the sea can never become one Five corporators from Akot had won and we had warned them Earlier they told us that while forming the group they did not know that it was the BJP So we told them to immediately write a letter to their Municipal Commissioner and withdraw from that group Owaisi told ANIHe further stated that it later emerged that a BJP leaders son had been accommodated through cooption following which Imtiaz Jaleel suspended the corporators from the party Owaisi made it clear that AIMIM would take strict action against any member aligning with rival political formationsWith Agency inputs