The Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is a part of the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A opposition bloc at the national level, has set the cat among the pigeons by announcing that it would independently contest all the 36 seats in Mumbai in the Maharashtra Assembly polls to be held in October this year.
The AAP’s decision to contest all the 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai will complicate the poll scenario as it will result in four-cornered contests in most of the constituencies in the metropolis.
The development should be seen in the light of the fact that there will be four political entities --BJP-led MahaYuti and Shiv Sena (UBT)-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Raj Thackeray-led MNS and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP --- will be vying with one another for the 36 seats in the city.
Though the MNS and AAP are not the main contending parties, they will cut into the traditional vote banks of the MahaYuti -- comprising BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP -- and MVA – comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP and alter the poll arithmetic in Mumbai.