With only two days left before the nominations process for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls in Maharashtra closes, the Congress sealed
an alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), led by B.R. Ambedkar's grandson. According to the seat-sharing arrangement, the VBA is set to contest 62 of the 227 seats in the upcoming BMC polls. However, a faction within the Congress party is unhappy with the Grand Old Party's alliance with the VBA, sources told Times Now. The faction in Congress' Mumbai unit is clearly unhappy for giving 'more-then-deserving' seats to Prakash Ambedkar's VBA, they said. A faction in Mumbai Congress was agitated as they felt the party gave too many seats to VBA. Congress will contest more than 150 seats, while some seats will be allocated to the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and RPI (Gavai), sources said. Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal said that decisions on alliances for the remaining 28 municipal corporations in the state would be taken at the local level, and both parties had authorised their local leaderships to take appropriate calls. The Congress is expected to announce its nominees soon. Its screening committee met on Sunday to clear the list of candidates.
Consensus Eludes Thackeray Cousins
Consensus on seat sharing for the January 15 BMC elections eluded both the Thackeray cousins. The Shiv Sena (UBT), led by Uddhav Thackeray, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) under Raj Thackeray, who recently announced their decision to ally for the BMC polls. They haven’t yet declared their lists of candidates for the polls.
Pawars Announce Alliance, NCP To Go Solo in Mumbai
In a crucial development, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday announced an alliance between his NCP, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti combine, and the NCP (SP), led by his uncle Sharad Pawar, for the Pimpri-Chinchwad civic polls, saying the “parivar” (family) has come together.
"For the sake of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections, the ‘clock’ and the ‘tutari’ have united. The parivar has come together,” he said. Pawar urged party workers to work hard and refrain from making any controversial comments during rallies. "We are the ones who work for development. We will edge out those who tried to put this municipal corporation in debt," he said.
Meanwhile, talks between the two parties are underway for a tie-up for the Pune Municipal Corporation polls. The NCP is contesting solo in Mumbai.
