Maha BJP wants AAP to contest BMC polls to ‘eat’ into opponents’ vote banks 

MUMBAI:  Taking a cue from Gujarat results, BJP’s Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar said on Thursday that their next immediate opponent in BMC elections will be the AAP. Reacting to the landslide and historic victory of BJP in Gujarat, Mumbai BJP unite president Ashish Shelar on Thursday said that their immediate competitor is AAP.

“The way AAP got the votes and seats in Gujarat election, and victory in Delhi Municipal Corporation elections and efforts in Himachal Pradesh shows that the main opponent of BJP in BMC elections will be AAP only. Other parties in Mumbai have no relevance now,” he said, putting the cat among the pigeons.

The BJP has to fight against Maha Vikas Aghadi mainly against Shiv Sena to wrest the BMC. Sena has been ruling the BMC for last 25 years  since 1997. In 2017, BJP gave a tough time to Shiv Sena by winning 83 seats while Shiv Sena had won 87 seats in 227 members BMC.

Sources in BJP said that people may have different opinion over AAP entry, but this is fact with entry and aggressive campaign of APP, the BJP would not have created all historical records. “Congress is always strong in rural Gujarat that BJP tried several times, but could not break that Congress’ OBC, Dalit, Muslim vote block.

But this time, AAP not only helped eat significant votes share of the Congress directly, impacting results of 75 seats in Gujarat and giving direct benefit to BJP. We want to use the same strategy in Mumbai by promoting AAP and MNS to split anti-BJP votes,” a BJP leader said.