MUMBAI: A splinter group of nine corporators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have declared their support to the Congress-led Bhiwandi Secular Front (BSF) for the mayoral elections to be held on February 20.
BJP corporator Narayan Chaudhary said that such a support was being extended since Congress has emerged as the single largest party in Bhiwandi. “We have decided to support BSF in the mayoral elections, and the name of the candidate will be declared soon,” he said. With the support of nine corporators Congress can pick its mayor. BJP’s Bhiwandi City president Ravikant Sawant however denied such a move saying, “BJP’s corporators have not extended support to Congress or any other party. You will see BJP picking its mayor in Bhiwandi.”
In the elections for 90-seat Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation, Congress emerged as the single largest party with 30 seats followed by NCP (SP) with 12 seats and Samajwadi Party (SP) with six seats. From the ruling side, BJP secured victory on 22 seats and Shiv Sena 12 seats. Smaller parties such as Vilas Patil-led Konark Vikas Aghadi (KVA) and Javed Dalvi-led Bhiwandi Vikas Aghadi (BVA) have won four and three seats respectively. One independent also succeeded in winning a seat in the civic body election. This fractured mandate led to the formation of BSF comprising Congress, NCP (SP) and SP. With support from the splinter group of BJP, their tally will go up to 57 seats, ahead of the majority mark of 46 seats.