INDIA

NCP joins hands with BJP to deny Mayor post to Shiv Sena in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar

The NCP leadership is not happy with its corporators, and has promised action.

Updated : Jan 18, 2019, 05:55 PM IST

NCP joins hands with BJP to deny Mayor post to Shiv Sena in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar

Politics makes strange bedfellows. In the race for the Mayor's chair in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar, the BJP and NCP came together to deny the Shiv Sena the post. While this is only likely to further shake the stormy relationship between the BJP and the Sena, it also saw the coming together of two unlikely allies. The NCP leadership however is not happy and has promised action against its corporators.

The December 10 results for the municipal elections in Ahmednagar saw a hung verdict. Shiv Sena had emerged the single largest party, winning 24 of the 68 seats, 11 short of the majority mark of 35. The NCP and BJP won 18 and 14 seats respectively.

The Sena and BJP are uncomfortable allies at the Centre and in the Maharashtra government. But this time, what was just a few years ago a 'natural alliance', would not materialise. The NCP, a longstanding ally of the Congress, chose to join hands with the BJP to keep the Sena out.

BJP's candidate for mayor, Babasaheb Wakale, secured the support of 37 corporators, two more than the halfway mark. With this, the BJP now controls 16 of the 27 municipal corporations in the state.

The NCP leadership is not happy about the fact that its corporators defied an order from the party to join hands with the BJP. "Eighteen NCP corporators defied party orders and supported BJP candidate for Ahmednagar Mayor post. NCP will take action against them and one MLA. Will issue show cause notices and if they fail to explain, they will be expelled from the party," NCP leader Nawab Malik told news agency ANI.

NCP leader Nawab Malik to ANI: 18 NCP corporators defied party orders and supported BJP candidate for Ahmednagar Mayor post. NCP to take action against them and one MLA. Will issue show cause notices and if they fail to explain, they will be expelled from the party (file pic) pic.twitter.com/Kr1j8GVPzX

— ANI (@ANI) December 28, 2018

While the BJP-NCP truck is unlikely to extend beyond the boundaries of Ahmednagar, the move would certainly prove yet another thorn in the the BJP-Sena relationship.

The Shiv Sena has taken an increasingly confrontational tone against the BJP ever since it won fewer seats in the 2014 Assembly election. Till then, the Sena had long been the senior alliance partner in Maharashtra. Since then, the Sena has repeatedly attacked the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Most recently, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray borrowed the words of, of all people, Rahul Gandhi, in saying, "Today the guards themselves have become thieves." There have also been repeated editorials in Saamna, the Shiv Sena's newspaper, leveling criticism in language that would have been more likely to come from the Congress.

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