Despite being huddled in protracted meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, the Mahayuti partners – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena – could not finalise their seat sharing pact.
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The reason behind the impasse, said people aware of developments, was Shinde’s tough stand on garnering more seats than what the BJP was offering in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik and a few other cities where the two parties are contesting together.
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By the end of the day however, Shiv Sena general secretary Rahul Shewale said, “We have almost finalised the seat sharing pact for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). We will have a Mahayuti mayor. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde will make the final announcement on Friday.” He added, the poll pact for other corporations in MMR will be announced in a couple of days.
Winning BMC
It is believed, Shinde has asked for almost all the seats that the undivided Shiv Sena won in BMC in 2017. The BJP however is willing to concede only those seats where the Sena corporators who had won in 2017 are with Shinde. But the dispute is about the 40-odd seats won by former corporators who have stayed with Shiv Sena (UBT). While Shinde is eyeing those seats, BJP is keen on contesting them, believing it can win them. Also, these seats are largely from Marathi-dominated areas where the party is seeking a presence.
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A senior Shiv Sena functionary, who participated in the seat sharing talks, corroborated this, saying, “We have come to a conclusion on only half of those 40-45 of seats. The rest needs to be sorted out.”
The undivided Sena had won 84 seats in the 2017 BMC elections. Data provided by Sena shows 39 former corporators from Sena (UBT) joined the Shinde faction. Overall, 61 corporators from the undivided Sena and other parties who joined Shinde were promised tickets; now Shinde is pressing for the remaining 45, but BJP is resolute in its stand.
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Sena had demanded 122 seats of the 227 electoral wards of BMC; and scaled down the demand to 100 in Mumbai after initial parleys. BJP is keen to contest around 150 seats with an aim to win around 100.
Kalyan-Dombivli and Vasai-Virar
Talks between Sena and BJP have hit a similar roadblock in Kalyan-Dombivli. The civic body is prestigious for both parties as it is the state BJP chief Ravindra Chavan’s home while Shinde’s son Shrikant is the local MP.
In 2017, Uddhav Thackeray had assigned the responsibility of winning the corporation to Shinde as BJP and Sena were fighting each other. Shinde proved his election management skills by winning more seats than the BJP at the time. And now, BJP is seeking to name its own mayor in Kalyan-Dombivli, with Chavan getting down to brass tacks.
Both parties want a bigger share of seats in the 133-member civic house, with BJP insisting on contesting 83 seats.
In Vasai-Virar, both Sena and BJP have reached a consensus with BJP getting 91 seats and Sena settling for 24 seats. Both however have to watch out for Bahujan Vikas Aghadi led by local strongman Hitendra Thakur.
In Thane, Shinde’s pocket borough, both the Sena and BJP are eyeing a large share of seats. For Navi Mumbai’s civic body, despite the initial meeting between Shinde and BJP’s Ganesh Naik, the dispute persists.
The fight for Jalna Municipal Corporation is a challenge, as Raosaheb Danve (BJP) and Arjun Khotkar (Shiv Sena) are at loggerheads. On Thursday, Sena minister Uday Samant said he had discussed the numbers with BJP minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, following which both parties decided for a fair share in Akola, Chandrapur and Nagpur corporations.