'Mayor will be from Sena'
25 Feb 2017 12:12 AM IST
Unfazed by the BJP breaching its citadel of Mumbai by winning 82 seats in the BMC polls, the Shiv Sena on Friday asserted that the civic body's mayor will be from their party and accused its estranged ally of using deceitful means to destabilise them.
Indicating its unwillingness towards a post-poll alliance with BJP in the country's richest civic body, the Sena said its fight with the saffron party will continue and it will keep walking on the difficult path, whatever be the consequences.
The BJP on Thursday scored a resounding victory in the Maharashtra civil polls emerging as the largest party in eight of the 10 municipal corporations while finishing a close second to bellicose ally Shiv Sena, which won 84 seats, in the latter's Mumbai bastion.
A day after the verdict, the Sena, in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana' claimed that BJP used the entire state machinery and all its might of Central leadership to secure unprecedented results in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other local body polls. "The Sena has been ruling the BMC from the last 25 years. They (the BJP) used deceitful means to destabilise our rule. This has never happened before when the Congress ruled the state," it charged.
"The BJP used all that it had for the BMC polls. But, despite the BJP getting 82 seats, the Mayor will be from Shiv Sena only," the Sena proclaimed.
Cong won't help Sena, BJP: Nirupam
Congress, which faced its worst ever rout in Mumbai winning only 31 of the 227 seats in the civic body, today said it will not do anything that will benefit the Shiv Sena and BJP in their bid to gain control of the country's richest civic body.
"We will not dilute our ideological stand. People defeated us and gave us a mandate to sit in the opposition. We respect that. But voters have not given the saffron parties, who fought a bitter battle, the keys to power. Congress will not help these two parties, but would like to see their fight continue and differences aggravate," Congress city unit chief Sanjay Nirupam said. He said that people will get to see how the party, which sought votes in the name of transparency, indulges in horse-trading.
The BJP had made "transparency" its main plank for the BMC polls. The hung verdict in Mumbai is expected to change the political calculations as Sena and BJP are not in the position to rule the country's richest civic body on its own.
However, it is not yet clear whether the saffron allies, which share power both in Maharashtra and at the Centre, will join hands to rule the BMC.
In the counting of votes held yesterday, the Congress was relegated to the third position with 31 seats. Shiv Sena topped the tally with 84 seats, followed by BJP which won 82 seats, just two less than the estranged saffron ally.
In the 2012 BMC polls, the Congress had won 52 seats and in 2007, it had emerged victorious on 75 seats in the Mumbai civic body.
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