"There was bit of fight over tickets among workers": BJP's Girish Mahajan on seat-sharing for BMC polls

Amid internal discontent within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over ticket distribution for the upcoming municipal corporation elections, Maharashtra Minister Girish Mahajan on Tuesday said that dissatisfaction had emerged among party workers due to limited seats and high demand.

Speaking to reporters in Nashik, Mahajan said the party could allocate only 122 tickets despite 1,000 people wanting tickets, which led to frustration among both senior and new party workers. "Here we could only give 122 tickets, but there were many people demanding tickets, so some people here were upset," Mahajan said.

"There was a bit of a fight over the tickets because there are 122 tickets and more than 1,000 people wanted tickets. Some were old workers, some were new people, everyone demanded that they should get a ticket, but we couldn't give that many tickets, so there was some anger among the workers," he added.


Furher, the Republican Party of India (RPI) chief, Ramdas Athawale, also accused the BJP of sidelining his party during seat-sharing talks for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

"The coming together of the BJP and Shiv Sena created a problem in giving tickets to the RPI. The Republican Party is a very strong party in Mumbai. But the BJP has ignored us. We were not called even once during the discussions. If the RPI had been called to the BJP-Shiv Sena discussions, some seats could have been allocated to us. Last night at 2 am, we were told that six seats had been given to us," Athawale told ANI.

Meanwhile on Monday, the Mahayuti finalised its seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. The BJP will contest 137 seats, while the Shiv Sena will field candidates in 90.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, UBT Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday launched an attack against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after the Mahayuti announced its seat-sharing arrangement for the BMC elections, alleging that the Shinde Sena "bowed down" in front of the BJP.

Taking a jibe at Deputy CM Shinde, Raut said his faction will contest the seats allotted to them by the BJP.

Raut said, "So far, Shiv Sena gave seats to BJP, but now Shiv Sena is receiving seats because of Amit Shah. In the last 60 years, Shiv Sena has never bowed down to anyone and compromised in Mumbai, but Eknath Shinde's faction has gone to Amit Shah; this is shameful. Eknath Shinde's faction will contest on the seats given to them by the BJP. This was shocking to me. This is a misfortune for Marathi people."

The polling for 29 municipal corporation elections across the state, including Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, will be held on January 15, with vote counting scheduled for January 16.