BMC elections: Signaling that all is not well in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday hinted that his party may go alone in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. Speaking to reporters, Raut said party workers are pushing for the organization to go it alone in the local body elections, as there are more candidates than in the Lok Sabha or state assembly elections.
“Talks are going on (about going alone) for the BMC elections between Uddhav Thackeray and other party leaders. The workers want the party to contest alone,” he said.The undivided Shiv Sena controlled the cash-rich BMC for 25 consecutive years – from 1997 to 2022. The tenure of the previous elected representatives of the BMC ended in early March 2022, and fresh elections are due for about three years now.
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Raut said that the strength of the party in Mumbai is undeniable. “If we had got more seats to contest in Mumbai (during the assembly elections), we would have won them,” he said. He claimed that it was necessary to conquer Mumbai, otherwise the city would have separated from Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena contested 24 seats in Mumbai and won 10, while Congress fielded candidates on 10 seats and won four, and NCP (SP) contested two seats but lost.
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“Even when (undivided) Shiv Sena was in alliance with BJP, we fought BMC and other municipal elections independently. We are trying to find ways to do the same in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nashik,” he said. MVA will remain present in municipal bodies.”