Congress leader Ravi Raja on Thursday announced that the grand old party will be contesting the 2022 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections alone. He added that there is no need for Congress to form an alliance with the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to fight the Mumbai civic polls.
"Congress to fight BMC elections alone. No need for an alliance with Shiv Sena," BMC's Leader of Opposition Ravi Raja told ANI.
It has to be noted that the Congress is a part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) -- an alliance of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena and the Congress -- in Maharashtra.
The BMC, which is the country's richest civic body, is governed by the Shiv Sena for the last 30 years.
In the 2017 polls, Shiv Sena had bagged 86 seats out of the total 227, while the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won 82 seats. The Congress and the NCP managed 30 and 9 seats respectively.
Earlier, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut had said that the MVA would contest the 2022 BMC elections together. "The Shiv Sena-led MVA will fight the civic polls in Maharashtra's capital and will win it. In Mumbai, who else but Shiv Sena can win? The MVA is here to stay permanently," Raut had said.
