Congress divided over support to Sena

In an apparent reference to Shiv Sena, Fadnavis said if any party wants to align with the Congress, it’s is free to go, BJP will not say a single word. A loss here would have not just humiliated the domestic, nativist party but would have made it vulnerable to all sorts of pressures that the dominant BJP would have piled on. Over the years, he has effectively confronted ridicule from the Shiv Sena.

Not only has the party done way better than the 31 seats it had won as the junior partner of the Sena during the last municipal elections, by winning 82 seats this time around it has more than doubled its tally.

The battle for the richest civic body in the country is over.

Devendra Fadnavis also gave credit of BJP’s success in Maharashtra local body election to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for starting “transparent politics” and added that they were getting a positive response as all communities have voted for them.

In Pune Municipal Corporation, BJP was leading on 11 seats and NCP on 5, while in Pimpri-Chinchwad civic body, Sena was leading on 4 and NCP and BJP on 2 seats each. Shiv Sena has reportedly offered the Deputy Mayor’s post to Congress in an event that the party extends its support. The BJP campaigned to show that the Shiv Sena’s governance in the BMC was shoddy (exemplified by the poor condition of roads and other examples of deteriorating infrastructure) conveniently ignoring that it too was part of the ruling set up for 22 years. The question now arises whether Congress and Sena will join hands to keep BJP away from power as the latter played an enemy to both the parties during last BMC elections. While the NCP has 9, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party won seven and six seats, respectively.

The party has also decided not to respond to the statement of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who had said it was time the two parties came together. It did not go so well for the Sena.

The BMC had an annual budget of Rs 37,000 crore in 2016-17. None of the BJP’s rivals, from Congress, NCP or Shiv Sena, were able to tackle or even to counter its meta narrative. The underperforming Congress looks to be the kingmaker with 31 seats. The BMC poll results proved to be big disappointment for Congress, which ruled the state for nearly 15 years in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) till 2014. If the Congress makes the move, the BJP could split both the Congress and the Sena.

ALL eyes will be on the outcome of the fiercely-fought BMC elections as counting for polls to 10 municipal corporations and 25 zilla parishads across Maharashtra begins on Thursday at 10 AM. The Congress fate was sealed even before electioneering started when its seniormost leader, AICC General Secretary Gurudas Kamat, threw a sudden tantrum by opposing Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam’s style of functioning.