The BJP and the Shiv Sena are playing a waiting game to grab power in the civic body in Mumbai after BMC Poll
With just two seats separating the Shiv Sena and the BJP in the BMC polls, there is a deadlock for power in India’s richest civic body.
Both the parties are high on confidence and waiting for the other to blink.
Here are some possibilities:
The Sena and BJP may come together to share power in the BMC, with one party taking the mayor’s post perhaps even making it rotational with a 2.5-year tenure for each party and the other getting chairmanship of the standing committee.
BJP has already claimed support of 4 independents. It could be backed by one more independent, MNS (7) and NCP (9), while Congress (31), SP (6) and MIM (2) could abstain to pave the way for the BJP mayoral candidate to win
Sena could tap the Congress for support or abstention; however, with the UP polls underway, Congress is unlikely to consider such an option given its professed antipathy to `anti-Muslim’ & `anti-north Indian’ parties.
Sena could try to get MNS and independents to support it while the Congress and or NCP abstain.
Unlike in State assemblies, the Mayor is directly elected by the corporators.
The real power lies in the statutory committees, like the Standing Committee and Improvements Committee, which are peopled on the basis of proportional representation.The Standing Committee has 26 members, plus chairman.The Sena, with 84 corporators, could get 10 members while the BJP with 82 corporators can get 9 on the panel.
Despite the defeat, Sena boss Uddhav Thackeray was high on confidence. Not just Mumbai Mayor but the next chief minister of Maharashtra will also be from Shiv Sena, Udhav said. On an alliance, he said “What is the hurry? Wait for some time. We have not yet decided if an alliance is to be made or not. We will do so soon.