MVA in huddle to keep BJP at bay in civic polls

MUMBAI: With the Supreme Court directing the state election commission (SEC) in Maharashtra to announce the dates for local civic body polls, the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is attempting to stitch an alliance at the local level to keep Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the key municipal bodies.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that there is a consensus among the allies to contest local body polls together to keep the BJP out of power.

The MVA allies will likely hold a round of meeting in the coming week, Sena insiders said.

Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have already held initial rounds of meetings on an alliance to join hands in Pune, Pimprichinchwad, Nashik and Navi Mumbai, Sena sources added.

According to Raut, the MVA will follow the Kolhapur

North bypoll model where the three parties pulled in their weight to make Congress candidates victorious against the BJP.

“Shiv Sena can singlehandedly win civic bodies elections in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Kalyan-dombivli, etc, but there are other municipal corporations like Nagpur, Pimprichinchwad, and Pune where Shiv Sena is not strong comparatively. NCP is strong in some cities, while Congress has strength in other places. So by some give and take, the key leaders of the parties will decide how to keep power within MVA. If we come together to contest elections, nobody can defeat MVA or keep us out of power in Maharashtra. We saw this in Kolhapur [by-poll] result,” Raut said.

An NCP minister confirmed that the discussion between Sena and NCP has begun. “We aim to keep BJP out and grow at the same time. There are cities where Sena wants to grow and the same applies to us (NCP) in areas like Mumbai and Nashik. We expect it to be crystallised in some time,” the minister said.

Parties have begun preparation for the civic body polls with BJP starting its “pol-khol” campaign in Mumbai and Sena touring Pune, Pimprichinchwad, and Nagpur.

“The supreme court order came yesterday, and elections to 18 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, will be held based on the decision. We all have been preparing, but we will have to expedite our preparation,” Raut added.

State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said that so far discussion has not commenced for local body poll alliance. “We have contested civic bodies, including Zilla Parishad and Gram Panchayat, solo. We will take a call based on the individual civic body; we will have to look at the wishes of the leaders at the local level. However, the common agenda would be to keep BJP out of power,” he said.