The tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi may have won the Maharashtra Council election for Yavatmal seat on Tuesday, with the Shiv Sena’s Dushyant Chaturvedi defeating Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sumit Bajoria, but the real test of the coalition is set to be the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) polls, slated to be held in the next two to three months.
The Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Congress alliance on Tuesday held their first joint programme in Vashi announcing that the election will be fought unitedly against BJP MLA Ganesh Naik, who had jumped to the BJP from the NCP days before the Assembly elections last year. Mr. Naik single-handedly controls the NMMC, which he had won as NCP leader five years ago. With him leaving the NCP, all but three corporators switched sides to join the BJP.
According to sources, the NCP and Sena are determined to end Mr. Naik’s reign in Navi Mumbai and have even agreed to make seat adjustments to contest the election. NCP’s State president and Irrigation Minister Jayant Patil, Thane’s Guardian Minister and Urban Development Department minister Eknath Shinde, and local Congress leaders participated in Tuesday’s programme in Vashi.
“With the departure of Mr. Naik from the NCP, the party is left with no face to fight the poll. But with the unexpected turn of events at the State level and the party coming back to power, it is still in the contest. Some corporators will come back to the party fold,” said a senior NCP leader. The party is ready to give more space to the Sena to ensure Mr. Naik and his family are defeated, he said.
On the other hand, the Sena has been fighting Mr. Naik for over years now. A former Sena leader, Mr. Naik had switched to the NCP and enjoyed a ministerial berth in the previous Congress-NCP governments in the State. He single-handedly controlled the party and the NMMC, without letting others in the party to grow.
The BJP, despite being in power in 2015 in the State, had not managed to win more than seven seats in the 111-member corporation. “With Mr. Naik’s entry into the BJP, it had hoped to expand its base, but the situation has changed yet again. We are determined to defeat him this time,” said a Sena leader. Meanwhile, in the State Council election in Yavatmal district, Mr. Chaturvedi of the Sena won 298 votes while Mr. Bajoria managed only 185. The seat had become vacant after former MLC Tanaji Sawant of the Sena contested the Assembly election and won from Osmanabad’s Bhoom-Paranda constituency.