It looks like resort politics has begun in Maharashtra after Mahayuti's thumping victory in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, as Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has decided to move all its recently elected corporators to a five-star hotel, said sources on Saturday. The step has been taken amid fears of poaching, as the Shiv Sena has emerged as a kingmaker in the BMC polls.
According to sources, all the 29 corporators of Shinde Sena will at Taj Lands End, a five-star hotel in Mumbai's Bandra, for at least three days. Many also look it as a pressure politics tactic by the Shiv Sena to secure a strong share of power in the BMC, which is India's richest civic body.
Interestingly, Shinde Sena's move came hours after his rival, Uddhav Thackeray said that it is his dream to install Shiv Sena (UBT) mayor in Mumbai and this dream will be realised "if the God is willing". Thackeray, whose party won 65 seats in the 227-member BMC, made the remarks while interacting with party workers in Mumbai a day after his faction lost control of India's richest civic body.
The Thackeray faction, which contested the BMC polls in alliance with Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), also lashed out at Shinde and called him an 'opportunist', who has no ideology and no stance. "If power, money and even the Election Commission are reduced to puppets, then any random wave can be manufactured in elections. Such waves and political churn have no real meaning," Saamana, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s mouthpiece, said in an editorial.
Coming to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it has emerged as single largest party in BMC, with 89 seats. Along with Shiv Sena, the Mahayuti has 118 seats, four more than the majority mark of 114. Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), also a member of Mahayuti but which contested separately, won three seats.
The UBT is the second largest party, while the MNS won just six of the 53 seats it contested. The Congress won 24 seats and Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) bagged just one seat. The UBT, NCP (SP) and Congress are members of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Meanwhile, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Samajwadi Party won eight and two seats, respectively.
