Alliance cards to be on table soon

Mumbai: After the Congress and NCP parted ways before the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, the Shiv Sena and BJP are likely to reveal the fate of their alliance this week. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is holding an important meeting on Wednesday with all the party executives, where he is likely to talk about the party’s stand on the alliance. The BJP, on the other hand, has said that the two parties have officially not started talks about the alliance.

The BMC polls scheduled for this year would be crucial for the Sena and the BJP, since it involves the financial capital of the country. The Sena, which has been ruling the BMC for over 15 years, is eager to get another five-year term. The BJP, which has emerged as the biggest gainer after the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, too will try to get control of the country’s biggest civic body.

Sources in the Shiv Sena said that Uddhav would be addressing a meeting of all the leaders from the state on Wednesday. “We will be having 26 zilla parishad polls and 10 municipal corporation polls earlier next year. All our party leaders from across the state would be attending the meeting. Uddhavji would guide us on how to go about the polls,” a Sena leader said. Uddhav had warned the BJP a few months ago to not break the alliance at the last minute. He was referring to the alliance being broken at the last moment before the Assembly polls in 2014.

The BJP, however, has informally demanded from the Sena 100 of the 227 seats of the BMC. The Sena is in no mood to leave almost half the seats to the BJP, but no official talks have taken place between the two. “We have not started any talks about the alliance. There is still time for it. But we want to contest not less than 100 seats. Our strength in Mumbai is more. We have 15 MLAs in Mumbai and would be contesting for more seats,” a BJP leader said.