After days of political drama and speculations, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) councillor Sadashiv Hender Patil defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Pradip Patil to become the deputy mayor of the Ambernath Municipal Council (AMC) in Maharashtra. Apart from Sadashiv, five other members were also nominated as members of the council.
Sadashiv received 32 votes to defeat Pradip, who got 28 votes. Interestingly, Sadashiv was backed Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. His victory is a massive setback for the BJP in Ambernath which falls in the Thane district. Before the polling, sloganeering had also taken place between Shiv Sena and BJP councillors, leading to a ruckus in the House.
The BJP councillors were even seen waving slippers and shouting against the Shiv Sena.
Ambernath's political landscape
The political situation in Ambernath had intensified after the BJP, the NCP and the Congress formed an alliance titled the Ambernath Vikas Aghadi (AVA) against the Shiv Sena. However, this caused an uproar, forcing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to clarify that the BJP leadership will not accept any alliance with Congress. Later, Congress also rejected an alliance with the BJP and said it will initiate action against the 12 councillors to get their membership cancelled.
Soon after this, 12 Congress councillors defected to the BJP, but the NCP withdrew its support from the saffron party and joined hands with the Shiv Sena. The 60-member Ambernath Municipal Council currently has 27 councillors from the Shiv Sena followed by the BJP (14), Congress (12), NCP (4), and independents (2).
With NCP councillors' backing, the Shiv Sena has a clear majority in the council. During Monday's vote, the BJP issued a whip to all AVA constituents to vote for its nominee, Pradip Patil. However, the NCP rejected the whip, a move backed by local Shiv Sena MLA Dr Balaji Kinikar, who declared that the "AVA no longer exists."
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