Ahead of BMC Polls, BJP Implies May Split From Shiv Sena & Go Solo

The Maharashtra chief of BJP said that after the 2017 civic body polls, BJP flags would fly atop the BMC building.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray. (Photo: PTI)      

Maharashtra chief of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Raosaheb Danve hinted at a split with the Shiv Sena for the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls. Danve, speaking on Monday at the event where he was re-elected as the party president did not say that the party would contest on its own but seemed to imply that their alliance with the Shiv Sena might face closure.

Danve told the Times of India that the saffron party would take hold of the civic body after the crucial polls.

<p>We went from 9 to 43 (seats) in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) civic polls (last year). Like that, we will win even in the BMC polls. The party flag will unfurl atop the BMC headquarters in 2017.</p>

<b> Raosaheb Danve, Maharashtra BJP Chief</b>

The two parties went their separate ways in the KDMC polls, the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls before this.

The BMC is currently ruled by the Shiv Sena which has a hold on 89 out of 227 corporators and its ally BJP has 32. The rest are divided between Congress (52), Sharad Pawar’s NCP (13), MNS (27) and others.