Put off by the stand taken by the BJP leadership that it would stake claim for mayor’s post in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday indicated that his party was not averse to going with any party other than its long-time saffron alliance partner to stake claim for power in the KDMC.
Within hours after Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Patil — Danve said that his party would stake claim for the Mayor’s post in both the KDMC and Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC), a miffed Uddhav said: “Danve has said that he would install his party’s mayor (in KDMC). His statement clearly establishes that the BJP does not want to ally with us. At this juncture I do not want to create unnecessary tension between us on this issue. Now Danve has spoken about his party’s stand of having its mayor, we are free to choose our options”.
On a day when Uddhav and Danve held separate meetings with their parties on the strategy to be adopted in the post-poll situation in KDMC, the State BJP chief asserted at a news conference: “I would like to tell you in uncertain terms that in both the municipal corporations (Kalyan-Dombivli and Kolhapur), we will try to install our mayors”.
The KDMC poll, held on Sunday, threw up a hung house on Monday, with the Shiv Sena stealing a march over its senior alliance partner, BJP, in the state and winning 52 seats in the 122-member civic body. Though the Sena emerged as the single largest party in the KDMC, it still fell 10 seats short of a simple majority.
In an election outcome that may alter post-poll political equations, the Shiv Sena walked away 52 seats in the KDMC polls, followed by 42 seats by BJP, nine seats by the MNS, four seats by the Congress and two seats by the NCP. Significantly enough, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (MIM) - opened an account with one seat, while the Mayawati-led BSP has one seat.
Given the stand taken by both the Sena and BJP, it is the MNS (with nine seats) and Independents and smaller parties (11 seats) that hold the key to power in the KDMC.
Sources said that in the event of its post-poll alliance with the BJP not materialising, the Sena would go with the Raj Thackeray-led MNS. “Since both Uddhav and his cousin Raj have long ironed out their differences and are on talking terms, the Sena chief would prefer to join hands with the MNS to rule the KDMC than letting the BJP dictate terms to him,” a senior Sena leader said.
On its part, BJP is banking on nine of the eleven independents and those from smaller parties. It remains to be seen if it will approach the MNS chief -- who had criticised the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi severely in the recent past -for support in the KDMC.
MNS leader Nitin Sardesai said that his party had not yet taken a call on its post-poll arrangement. “Today our newly elected party corporators met Rajsaheb. We have received informal feelers from both sides ( Sena and BJP) about a post-poll alliance. But no party has so far approached us formally. Rajsaheb will decide on the party’s post-poll approach in the coming days”.