Maharashtra civic poll results a bittersweet moment for BJP, Shiv Sena

Mumbai: BJP and Shiv Sena are not only jostling for posts of mayor and other important seats in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation but also in Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli and Ulhasnagar municipal corporations.

While Shiv Sena is lobbying for the posts of mayor and standing committee chairman in the Mumbai corporation, BJP is demanding the same from Shiv Sena in its bastion of Thane.

Niranjan Davkhare, a BJP leader from Thane, said: "If we have to fulfil the promises, then we need to be sitting in these posts. So, whether it is the post of mayor, leader of the house or standing committee chairman, all these need to be shared with us (by Sena)."


Unlike the Mumbai corporation where BJP needs Shiv Sena to get to the majority of 114, in Thane, Shiv Sena does not need BJP as it has a majority on its own. The Thane unit of BJP is hinting that if it is not given 'respect', then it may not even sit in the opposition.

The tussle for posts is being seen in the backdrop of Shiv Sena feeling that BJP, once a smaller ally, is now becoming big and even threatening Shiv Sena's existence. Ironically, this was the reason why Uddhav Thackeray decided to keep BJP away from the government in 2019 and decided to join a Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra. The experiment lasted for two years until Eknath Shinde split the party. The wheel has now come full circle, with Shinde too getting anxious.

So uneasy is the Shinde camp over BJP's rise that in Ulhasnagar where the two parties fought separately and got almost similar number of seats (37 for BJP and 36 for Shiv Sena), Shiv Sena has decided to reach out to two Vanchit Bahujan Party corporators to take control of the house. Similar scenes are unfolding in Kalyan-Dombivli where BJP and Shiv Sena fought in an alliance and got 50 and 53 seats, respectively. But Sena is looking to have its own mayor and has contacted 11 Sena (UBT) corporators to help them cross over.