Mumbai: Congress leaders met Sharad Pawar and leaders of his NCP (SP) to discuss a possible alliance for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, despite the party’s intention of contesting the polls solo.
Congress sources told ThePrint that the delegation put up a proposal for a formal alliance since NCP (SP) is “their natural alliance partner”.
“To this, Sharad Pawar said that next week he will convene a meeting with the NCP (SP) Mumbai unit and Congress to discuss this in detail,” a Congress leader told ThePrint.
The meeting was attended by Mumbai Congress chief and Member of Parliament (MP) Varsha Gaikwad, along with Congress MLAs from Mumbai—Amin Patel, Aslam Shaikh, and Jyoti Gaikwad, and NCP (SP) MP from Baramati Supriya Sule.
“Both these parties are democratic and believe in the Constitution, and very soon a decision on this will be taken,” Gaikwad told the media.
Congress sources told ThePrint that they don’t want to align with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
(MNS) for multiple reasons, including ideological differences and seat-sharing.
“If we go with Sena UBT, who is looking to ally with MNS, we will not get seats to contest. Besides, we don’t see any benefit or vote transfer of their votes into our kitty. So why should we part with our vote bank (Muslims)?,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint.
The NCP (SP) is also considering an alliance with Sena (UBT), an integral part of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). “It seems that Congress approached NCP because they don’t want NCP to ally with Sena UBT and MNS. Also, NCP (SP) doesn’t have much base in Mumbai. So Congress can give them some seats, which doesn’t remain the case with an alliance with Sena UBT and MNS,” said political analyst Pratap Asbe.
The BMC, or the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, is the governing civic body of Mumbai, with elections expected to be conducted in January 2026. In 2017, out of 227 seats, the Congress nabbed 31, whereas the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) got 82 seats. The then-undivided Shiv Sena, which had ruled the BMC for 25 years, got 84 seats.
Following splits within both the Shiv Sena and the NCP, this will be the first local body election where all factions contest separately.
Uddhav Thackeray is currently in talks with cousin Raj for a possible alliance in the BMC polls, although a formal announcement is yet to be made. Party functionaries in the NCP (SP) told ThePrint that the NCP will take a call once the election date is announced.
“We are a part of MVA, and ideally, we wanted MVA to contest together. But now, since Congress is going solo, our senior party leaders will take a final call with whom to ally,” an NCP (SP) functionary told ThePrint.
Gaikwad told the media that Mumbai elections should be fought on the issues of Mumbai and not on any caste, language, or religion.
A few months back, Sanjay Raut (Sena UBT) had discussed his intention of going solo. If Uddhav and Raj Thackeray come together, it is a welcome step, but it has not been discussed with Congress. Besides, we believe that the party should fight elections with like-minded people and not those who try to divide citizens of various lines,” Gaikwad said.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)
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