After two months of hectic negotiations, the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday announced its seat-sharing formula with the Republican Party of India (Ramdas Athavale group) with a promise to give the latter a share in the pie of the country’s richest civic body.
The Sena and the RPI have come together for the second time, after the 1967 civic polls when RPI was a single unit. The Sena will contest 135 seats, BJP 63 and RPI 29. In 2007, the BJP had 72 seats and the Sena 155. Since the alliance with RPI was a proposal mooted by the Sena after Athavale spoke to Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the latter has given up 20 seats - including a seat where they have a corporator but its reservation has been changed from OBC to Women (SC).
The RPI has got three seats it had won in 2007 and it will largely be fighting against Congress and Samajwadi Party corporators. The Sena has given two seats won by Arun Gawli’s Akhil Bhartiya Sena (ABS) in Byculla to RPI.
Athavale, who was insisting on one more seat from Sena till Wednesday night, has now been pacified with the promise of a post in the civic body and hopes of more during the 2014 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The Sena has asked Athavale to deal with miffed Dalit Panther leader Namdeo Dhasal, who did not attend the press conference.
“This alliance was necessary and historical... and a dream of many years... The decision is not just for elections. We have come together to fight the corrupt Congress government,” Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said.
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