Seat-sharing done, nominations due: BJP–Sena finalise BMC battle lines

After days of deliberations the BJP and the Shiv Sena announced a seat sharing agreement late on Monday night with the BJP set to contest 137 seats and the Shiv Sena 90 seats.

The announcement was made after a late night meeting between BJP’s Mumbai City president Amit Satam and Sena’s Rahul Shewale. “We have completed our seat sharing talks for the 227 seats. It has been decided that BJP will contest on 137 seats while Sena will contest on 90 seats. Both parties will allocate some seats from their respective quotas to their allied parties. The candidates of both parties will file their nomination papers on Tuesday and hold a joint campaigning. We will seek the votes together and install the Maha Yuti’s mayor in Mumbai,”Satam said.

The announcement drew curtains on the prolonged discussion between the two parties on who gets how many seats for the BMC elections.

Meanwhile as the deadline for filing nominations for the January 15 Brihanmumbai Municipal Coporation (BMC) elections ends Tuesday, political parties on Monday rushed to finalise candidates, issue AB forms and iron out alliance-related issues. An AB form denotes that a certain candidate has been approved by a political party.

On Monday, the Indian National Congress released its first list of 87 candidates for the civic polls, a day after formally announcing an alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar.

The Congress has largely focused on the western suburbs, including areas such as Dahisar, Kandivli, Magathane, Charkop, Malad, Versova and Andheri West, and has finalised candidates primarily from constituencies represented by its sitting MLAs such as Aslam Sheikh, Amin Patel and Jyoti Gaikwad.

So far Congress, Ajit Pawar-led NCP, NCP (SP), Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have released lists of candidates for BMC polls, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), MNS and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are yet to officially release their list of candidates.

However, Shiv Sena (UBT) is learnt to have issued AB forms to 102 candidates till Monday evening, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to 24 aspirants, and the BJP to 100 candidates.

Sena (UBT)’s distribution of AB forms began Sunday and continued late into Monday at Matoshree, where party president Uddhav Thackeray personally handed over authorisation letters to candidates, directing them to file nominations immediately.

Among those who received AB forms were Roshni Gaikwad (Ward 3), Ankit Prabhu (Ward 54), Zeeshan Changez Multani (Ward 62), Prasad Ayre (Ward 65), Ramakant Rahate (Ward 208) and Suprada Fatarphekar (Ward 150).

Notably, AB forms were not issued in Worli, represented in the Assembly by Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray. “We have not given AB forms in Worli yet. Forms for Worli, Sewri and Dadar will be issued soon. Local rivalries exist, especially given our past contests with the MNS, but these should not be overplayed,” a Sena (UBT) functionary said.

Former mayor Kishori Pednekar, too, had not received an AB form till late Monday evening.

The uncertainty led to the resignation of Worli shakha pramukh Suryakant Koli after Hemangi Worlikar was reportedly finalised from Ward 193.

Former corporator Vishakha Raut, who received a ticket from Ward 191, said in a post on X that the AB form handed to her by Uddhav Thackeray had strengthened her resolve for victory.

Party functionaries also acknowledged murmurs of a face-off between Sena (UBT) leaders Anil Parab and Varun Sardesai over ticket distribution in Bandra (East).

Parab was reported to have walked out of a late-night meeting at Matoshree.

However, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut dismissed reports of any rift, saying differences, if any, would be resolved internally.

Sena (UBT) candidate Meghana Mane from Ward 60 expressed confidence that the Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance would emerge victorious.

While the AB form distribution was going on, the party also witnessed a discontent, with several aspirants lining up outside Matoshree.

Aspirants Anjali Suryawanshi and Chetan Suryawanshi staged a sit-in protest demanding a ticket for Anjali, while some others raised slogans after being denied nominations.

The BJP also issued AB forms to over 100 aspirants till Monday evening. The prominent names in the list are BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s son Neel Somaiya from Mulund West, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar’s brother Makarand and his sister Harshita from Colaba, former BJP corpprators Vinod mIshra from Malad, Rohan Rathod from Andheri and Ravi Raja. Several organisational workers and first-time candidates such as BJP spokesperson and media cell incharge Navnath Ban from Mankhurd has also been given tickets by the BJP.

The BMC elections are scheduled for January 15 with counting on January 16.