Following a drubbing in elections to the municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Maharashtra, the Congress is looking for an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls and the two sides have also held four meetings in the past 10 days. On Sunday, a Congress delegation led by UB Venkatesh also met Ambedkar and discussed possibility about forming an alliance.
The delegation also included Sachin Sawant and Aslam Shaikh. The grand old party has also formed a three-member committee, which includes Amin Patel, Madhu Chavan and Sachin Sawant, for this. According to sources, the two sides have held positive talks so far and may announce an alliance soon.
"The interaction underscored the importance of constructive dialogue and democratic engagement in the days ahead," Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad said on Sunday's meeting.
BMC elections and MVA's rout in civic polls
The voting for the high-stake elections to 29 municipal corporations, including the BMC, will take place on January 15. The counting of votes will take place on January 16.
This comes after the two-phase municipal councils and nagar panchayats elections, whose results were declared on Sunday. The elections were swept by the ruling Mahayuti, which includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
According to the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC), the BJP won 117 posts of municipal presidents, Shiv Sena won 53, and the NCP won 37 posts. The Congress, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena-UBT and Sharad Pawar's NCP-SP won 28, nine and seven posts, respectively.
The Congress, Sena-UBT and NCP-SP are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), but the allies have failed to form an alliance for the BMC elections. Sena-UBT is looking to seal an alliance with Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), but Congress is against the move. Thus, Congress is looking for an alternative alliance for the BMC polls.
