Disbanding its plans to have an electoral tie-up with its ruling alliance partner BJP in the State, the ruling Shiv Sena on Thursday night announced that it would go it alone in the polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), nine other municipal corporations, zilla parishads and panchayat samitis across the State.
Ending the uncertainty over a possible alliance between his party and the BJP for the crucial BMC polls and elections to other corporations, ZPs and local self-bodies, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said, “Henceforth, it is the Shiv Sena that will unfurl its flag over Maharashtra. Henceforth, we will not knock at the doors of any political party for an alliance. We would not like to be at the mercy of any political party. As a first step, the Sena will contest the forthcoming municipal corporation, ZP and panchayat samiti polls on its own strength.”
Reacting to the Sena’s decision to go it alone in the BMC polls, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Power is not an end for us. It is a means to achieve development through transparency in governance. We will achieve it with those who join us or without them”.
Maintaining that he would not tolerate any kind of rebellion within the party ranks once he took the decision of going it alone, Uddhav said: “I want such Shiv Sainiks who will fight injustice and not those who stab others behind the back. Once I take a decision, I do not want to see even one Shiv Sainik to rebel against me”.
Rejecting the BJP’s unrealistic demand of 114 seats out of the total 227 seats in the BMC, Uddhav said: “Why should I give more seats, when my party has fulfilled all the promises it had made to the people in the 2012 BMC polls. We are expecting our share of seats on the basis of the work my party has done during the past five years and not on the basis of empty promises”.
Uddhav said that the Sena had 25 years of 50 years’ existence by being in alliance with the BJP - all for ensuring that there is no division in the Hindutva votes. “We are not breaking the alliance with the BJP. It is the BJP that has forced us to do. Though we are being told that the discussions are going on at the highest level. I would like to know as what is this highest level. Till today I have not received any phone from anyone from the BJP. Today, I got feelers from the other side that it would be better that we contest the polls on respective strengths”.
Dismissing the bogey of “transparency” raised by the BJP in its seat-sharing negotiations with the Sena, Uddhav said: “We are all for transparency in governance in the BMC. Will the BJP be transparent in governance in the State and at the CentreIJ”
Udhav’s statement about the Sena going it alone in the polls merely confirmed that all was not well since the seat-sharing negotiations for the BMC polls began early this month. The talks between the two saffron alliance partners broke down during the last weekend, after the BJP demanded 114 out of the 227 seats in the BMC.
The talks between the saffron alliance partners hit a roadblock on Sunday, after Sena’s spokesperson Sanjay Raut went to town saying that the BJP did not deserve more than 60 seats - out of the total 227 seats in the BMC. On its part, the BJP - which being the principal ruling party in the State considers itself stronger party than it was in the 2012 BMC polls, has demanded 114 seats, a demand that the Sena has rejected outright.
In the 2012 BMC polls, the Shiv Sena - which had forged an alliance with the BJP and RPI(A) - had contested 135 out of the total 227 seats. The BJP had put up candidates in 63 wards, while the RPI(A) had contested 29 seats. Of the 135 seats it had contested, the Sena had won 75 seats, while the BJP had bagged 32 seats out of the 63 seats it had contested. The RPI (A) had bagged mere one seat.
Between the 2012 BMC polls when the Congress-NCP alliance was running the Government in Maharashtra and now, there has been a sea change in the political scenario in the State.
With it at the helm of affairs in the State, the BJP has for quite some time been making preparations to go it alone in the BMC polls. The hawks in the BJP have right from the beginning saying that their party wanted to go it alone in the polls, so much so that the BJP has already identified its candidates for all the 227 seats in the BMC. Hence, the Sena’s announcement that it would go it alone in the polls did come as any surprise.