Mumbai: The last date for the filing of nominations for the Jan 15 elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections resulted in revolts in almost all the parties on Tuesday. Many of those denied tickets openly accused their respective party leadership of ``betrayal." Extreme discontent over the ticket distribution also saw aspirants abandoning their parties and joining rival organisations which obliged them. For example, Rakhee Jadhav, who was the Mumbai president of the NCP (SP), coolly quit the party led by her and joined the BJP to get obtain a ticket to contest from Ghatkopar.
Discontent emerged from all Mahayuti as well as MVA over seat sharing, as many aspirants and former corporators were denied tickets and many switched parties at the last moment in want of a ticket, while some declared to contest independently.
The alliances formed are the BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) will contest as the Mahayuti, Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS, Congress and Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA will contest in alliance, while both factions of NCP will contest solo in Mumbai. The Samajwadi Party and Aam Aadmi Party will also be contesting solo. The BMC has 227 seats.
Seat Sharing
In the seat-sharing formula, the BJP will contest on 137 and Shiv Sena (Shinde) at 90.
The Congress released a list of a total of 143 candidates, VBA 62. The Congress-VBA alliance will give the remaining seats to smaller alliance parties like the Rashtriya Samaj Party.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS alliance has announced a list of 92 and 53 candidates, respectively, till the last reports
The NCP (Ajit Pawar) announced its third and final list of 30 candidates on Tuesday, taking the total candidates fielded in Mumbai to 94 wards in Mumbai. Notably, 52 women candidates—referred to by the party as “Ladki Bahin”—will be contesting the elections, as the NCP prepares to enter the fray with full strength and capacity. Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP announced its second list of four candidates, with the party fielding candidates at a total of 11 seats in Mumbai.
Notably, the number of candidates fielded by Ajit Pawar-led NCP is more than Shinde Sena.
The BMC election department will scrutinise the nominations submissions on Wednesday, December 31, the last day of nomination withdrawal will be January 2, and the final list of candidates with symbols will be declared on January 3.
Discontent emerges
The BJP workers stormed the party office in Dadar after the party gave the ticket from ward 185 (Dharavi) to Ravi Raja, the long-time corporator and former leader of the opposition, who shifted from Congress to the BJP last year. Raja, who was appointed as the BJP’s Mumbai vice president, had earlier elected from Sion; however, the BJP chose to field him from Dharavi this time because of reservation issue. The workers protested as the ticket was denied to local activist Ramesh Nadar and accused the party leadership of favouring an ``outsider."
Former BJP corporator Nehal Shah from ward 177 (Matunga) was denied ticket from the ward. She took to the social media to announce that she is contesting independently.
MNS’ former corporator and strong voice from Dadar-Matunga Snehal Jadhav quit the party because the ticket was given to Yashwant Killedar. She along with her husband Sudhir Jadhav, joined Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
Upset Ramdas Athawale’s RPI goes solo
The BJP had announced on Monday night that out of 227 seats, 137 will be in the BJP’s kitty and Shiv Sena (Shinde) will get 90. The RPI (Athawale) were offered six seats from the BJP’s quota, against party president and union minister Ramdas Athawale’s demand minimum of 12. The disagreement led to Athawale going solo in the BMC elections, announcing 38 candidates. Later in the evening, BJP leader Pravin Darekar rushed to Athawale’s Bandra residence to pacify him.
The contests in all the 227 wards will become clear on January 3 by which time all parties are hopeful of tackling rebellion in their ranks.
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