BMC polls: Cong releases first list of 70 candidates

Mumbai: The Congress on Monday put out its first list of 70 candidates for the January 15 elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), an announcement coming just a day before the deadline for filing nominations ends.

The list came a day after the national party sealed a seat pact with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), led by former MP Prakash Ambedkar, for polls to the 227-member BMC, India’s biggest and richest civic body with an annual budget of more than Rs 74,000 crore.

The VBA is contesting 62 seats in alliance with the Congress. Meanwhile, former Maharashtra minister Mahadev Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (RSP), contesting the BMC polls in alliance with Congress, also announced its first list of six candidates.

The Nationalist Congress Party (SP), led by former Union minister Sharad Pawar, declared its candidates for seven seats. The party, a constituent of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), hasn’t forged an alliance with any other political outfit in Mumbai.AGENCIES