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Mumbai’s Shiv Sena retains hold of BMC with help of allies Congress, NCP
The Shiv Sena has retained control of the crucial civic standing committee as its nominee Yashwant Jadhav was elected as chairman. The Congress withdrew its candidate
The Shiv Sena has retained control of the crucial civic standing committee as its nominee Yashwant Jadhav was elected as chairman. The Congress withdrew its candidate and abstained from voting. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) voted in favour of Sena against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Sena’s Sandhya Doshi also won the election for the education committee that supervises primary and secondary education in Mumbai. Sena insiders said the party would offer chairmanship of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) to the Congress in exchange for support in BMC.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) voted for Sena, citing that they wanted to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of the race due to ideological differences.
Rais Shaikh, SP Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Bhiwandi and BMC corporator, said, “Our votes went to Sena, and it was purely to keep the BJP out of the race.”
The Congress, on the other hand, stayed neutral in the voting on Monday by withdrawing candidatures for both committees, citing insufficient numbers. It also alleged that the BJP tried to bribe its corporators for cross-voting. The Congress added that it did not want to support the BJP on grounds of principles, and hence withdrew candidates.
Ravi Raja, leader of opposition of the Congress, said, “We withdrew our candidatures to keep the BJP out of BMC as they were somehow contacting our corporators to cross vote by offering money. We will continue to remain in opposition and will withdraw candidatures for all the remaining committees like the improvement committee and BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport), for which elections are on Tuesday.”
Cross voting was possible in both committees where Sena has a majority followed by BJP having the second-largest majority, Congress, NCP and SP. In this case, if somehow the Congress corporators would have voted for BJP or BJP corporators voted for Congress, Sena’s chances to win would have been in danger.
Eknath Gaikwad, Mumbai Congress president said, “We withdrew as we had no numbers and we did not want support from the BJP. We will continue to remain in the opposition in the BMC.”
BJP rubbished all allegations by the Congress of trying to buy votes. Bhalchandra Shirsat, BJP corporator and standing committee member, said, “We are the true opposition party in the BMC, considering Congress and Sena are together in the state government. By the withdrawal of candidatures, it is very clear that Congress is Sena-sponsored opposition. We did not offer any money to Congress corporators.”
In the civic house of 227, the Sena has 97 elected representatives. It is short of 17 for a simple majority of 114 but has managed to remain in power as the opposition is divided. The BJP is the second largest party with 83 seats but it has decided to play the role of an opposition party. The Congress (29) is also in the opposition, and so is the NCP (8). Though these two parties are Sena’s allies in the state government, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has avoided any sharing of power with them in the BMC. Other smaller parties include Samajwadi Party (6), AIMIM (2) and MNS (1).
Significantly, Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) members Sena, Congress and NCP, along with SP have been discussing the possibility of contesting the Mumbai civic polls in 2022, together. “We are together in the state but not in the BMC. About BMC, I cannot comment now, it all will depend on the situation at that time,” said Gaikwad.
However, a senior Congress leader said that an understanding was struck between the Sena and Congress, over giving the latter the chairmanship position in the Mumbai Board of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) and chairmanship of the Maulana Azad Minorities Financial Development Corporation Limited (MAMFDCL) in exchange for withdrawing candidates from the BMC.
The members of every statutory committee are elected from among elected corporators (except BEST), and the members then elect a chairman. In the 27-member standing committee, 26 members were eligible for voting. Sena’s Jadhav got 14 votes, and BJP’s Makrand Narvekar got nine votes.
In the 26-member education committee, Sena’s Doshi got 13 votes and BJP’s Surekha Patil got seven votes. The representation for each party to these committees is given based on the strength of the party’s elected corporators. The members have tenure of two years, and the chairmanship is for one year. On Monday, elections for the education and standing committee were held, and elections for improvement and BEST committees will be conducted today.
