As talks over the possible reunion of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) took a back seat, the Ajit Pawar faction has begun preparations to contest solo in the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
The third round of meetings of Mumbai NCP leaders was held on Thursday under the leadership of state party president Sunil Tatkare. The meeting was attended by senior leaders, including Zeeshan Siddiqui, Nawab Malik and Sana Malik, and focused on finalising candidates and assessing the party’s readiness to go solo in the civic polls, NDTV reported.
NCP MLA Sana Malik said the party was preparing to contest around 60 seats in the BMC elections, though a final decision is awaited from the party leadership. “We are preparing to contest around 60 seats, and interviews of interested candidates are underway,” she said as quoted by the news outlet.
She added that the party would choose its own leadership for the elections and asserted that attempts were being made to target Nawab Malik. “We will fight the elections on the ideology of Shiv-Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar,” Malik said.
Meanwhile, Mahayuti allies — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena — have reportedly kept the NCP out of seat-sharing discussions for the BMC polls, citing the party’s decision to appoint Nawab Malik as its Mumbai coordinator.
The Mumbai civic body or the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest corporation, will go to polls on January 15, with counting of votes on January 16.
The State Election Commission on December 19 announced the poll schedule for BMC, along with 28 other civic corporations. As many as 2,869 seats in these municipal corporations will be up for grabs, said State Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, adding that 3.48 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in these major urban centres of the state.
The elections for all 29 corporations, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, will be held in a single phase. The code of conduct has come into effect from December 19.
Voting will take place in 227 wards in Mumbai and 111 wards in Navi Mumbai.
