The election for these posts is slated for March 8.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not contest for the posts of Mayor or Deputy Mayor at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) where the elections resulted in a hung house, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced on Saturday. At a press conference in Mumbai, Fadnavis said that the party would also not contest in the standing committee elections but would work as watchdog in the BMC.
The CM announced that a committee would be set up to suggest ways and means to bring transparency in functioning of all the municipal corporations in the state. The committee will have Ramanath Jha, Sharad Kale and Gautam Chatterjee as members and will submit its report in next three months.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena announced its candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the BMC on Saturday. The announcement of the candidates by Shiv Sena for the election slated for March 8 indicates that the party is not willing for a post-poll alliance with the BJP. Vishvanath Mahadeshwar will be Shiv Sena's candidate for the Mayor's post and Hareshwar Worlikar is Deputy Mayor nominee, senior Sena leader Anil Parab told PTI.
On Friday, Fadnavis called Matoshree and had a word with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to inform him that BJP would not be contesting any of the elections in BMC and would prefer to remain a watchdog.
Neither the Sena, which emerged as the single largest party with 84 seats, nor the BJP, a close second with 82 corporators, has enough numbers to touch the half-way mark in 227-member council.
At Saturday's press conference, Fadnavis announced that the BJP would not contest elections for the posts of chairman in any of the committees in BMC including the standing committee, the education committee and the city improvement committee.
He said that it was possible for the party to win the post of mayor but it would have been against the plank of transparency and it would have been betrayal of the confidence shown by people of Mumbai in transparency and in BJP.
Fadnavis announced that government would request the Lokayukta for the appointment of a separate Uplokayaukta especially for Mumbai to crack down on corruption and make the administration more transparent.
The CM said that the BJP fought the civic polls in Mumbai on the issue of transparency and saw its seats jump from 31 to 82 as people validated this.
Fadnavis asserted that the BJP would not vote for any party apart from the Shiv Sena. The decision, he said, was taken for the welfare of Mumbai and to respect the mandate. "Decisions in the BMC will not be possible without us, if we are firm on issue of transparency, no non-transparent decisions can be taken," Fadnavis said.
The CM assured that the government is stable saying that Shiv Sena's minister had attended Friday's cabinet metting.
At the BMC, the party with the highest number of corporators can get its candidates elected for the two posts so long as other parties do not come together and put up joint candidates. After Geeta Gawli, who won as the candidate of the local outfit Akhil Bharatiya Sena pledging support to the BJP, the party's effective strength has gone up to 83.
The party-wise strength in the 227-member council now stood at Shiv Sena 84 plus 4 (independents), BJP 82 plus 1, Congress 31, NCP 9, MNS 7, Samajwadi Party 6, AIMIM 2, ABS 1, Independent 1.
The BJP-Sena relations, as partners in the state and central government, hit a new low in the backdrop of civic elections across Maharashstra, which saw the saffron parties contesting separately and hurling charges at each other. The two parties have been together for nearly three decades but after the recent split, the Sena has even threatened that it may pull out of the BJP-led government in the state any time.
Meanwhile, Bala Nandgaonkar, former MLA of Raj Thackeray-led MNS, said that his party would be happy if a Sena Mayor gets elected.
With PTI inputs.
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