Sena cozies up to Cong for BMC polls

NEW DELHI: As elections to India’s richest civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is only a fortnight away, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena is reportedly cozing up to Congress party.

According to sources, on the eve of Valentine’s Day and ahead of February 21 BMC polls, both the Congress and the Sena have exchanged gifts in the form of seat adjustments for the civic body polls.

Even the state BJP leadership have claimed that Sena will be helping the Congress on 10 seats whereas the Congress will return the favour on 40 seats. However, Congress is yet to confirm the seat negotiation buzz but feels that the party is the only option left for Sena.

Congress also claimed that BJP is having a political nexus with NCP led by Sharad Pawar, who is eyeing on the upcoming Presidential elections.

The party feels that conferring Pawar with Padma award also points to a new political equation.

“We shouldn’t forget that the party also had given unconditional support to the Fadnavis government in 2014 after the Assembly elections,” a senior Congressman said.

The Congress leadership in the state also claimed that now the target of both the Shiv Sena and the Congress is same: Ousting BJP from power as it has disappointed the people of the state. At the same time, Congress also seem to be desperate to conceal the damage of 2014 elections.

Sources said that the NCP leadership is in no hurry and will wait and see the outcome of local polls in Maharashtra and Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh to see which way the wind blows.

However, speaking about an alliance with BJP, NCP brass rubbished the claims and said that neither BJP, nor Congress will go it alone in the BMC poll.

In recent months, relations between Shiv Sena and its 20-year-old alliance partner BJP has worsened with Sena chief regularly slamming the BJP government at the Centre and party MLAS threatening to withdraw support from the state government in Maharashtra led by BJP.