Sena, BJP play waiting game, focus now on others
NDA allies yet to initiate talks to end stalemate
MUMBAI: If the saffron allies continue their stand-off, other parties, including the Congress and smaller parties like the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), who lost in the recently concluded Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, might play an important role in the decisionmaking.
Both Shiv Sena and BJP, who won a near equal mandate in the civic polls, have so far taken no steps to initiate a dialogue to work out a compromise and rule the BMC together. Instead, the alliesturned-rivals on Saturday continued their pressure tactics with Sena claiming to have full confidence of installing their own mayor to win power in the civic body and BJP reiterating its agenda of `transparency’.
The Sena has moved faster by already enlisting support of four out of the five independents to bolster its seat tally to 88. It has also initiated informal talks with the Congress top brass to get support for its mayoral candidate directly. The direct support from Congress looks tricky as of now with its city chief Sanjay Nirupam ruling it out.
But, the party can still help out the Sena by abstaining from voting or putting up its own mayoral candidate. Both these options will reduce the numbers required to get mayor elected for the Sena and BJP putting greater onus on the role of NCP and MNS.
BJP for the time being has decided to wait and watch for Congress’ stance before deciding the next political move. Its leaders have avoided making any adverse comments on the issue.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at a party’s victory meet in Mumbai said, “Those who want to go with Congress are free to go with them..we are firm on our agenda of transparency.’’
However, Fadnavis did not take on the Sena directly nor did he claim that BJP would install its own mayor in the BMC.
Senior BJP leaders told Hindustan Times that if the party had to make a bid for mayor, it would enlist support of MNS and remaining independent corporator but as of now had not initiated talks with anyone.
If the parties face each other in the mayoral election on March 8 or 9 then that contest also looks poised for a close finish. But, many in the political circles believe that the stance of the allies is more about muscle flexing for a better bargain.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, it is learnt, is keen on ensuring only Sena mayor in Mumbai and is pressurising BJP to concede to the same.
“The BMC will definitely only have a Shiv Sena mayor. We have started informal talks with Congress. If the party doesn’t support us and decides to abstain, we will ensure we have a proper floor management plan in place for our mayoral candidate to win,” a Shiv Sena leader told HT.