Sena announces nominees for Mayor and Deputy Mayor post
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena today announced its candidates for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, where the elections resulted in a hung house. The announcement of the candidates by Shiv Sena for the election slated for March 8 indicates that the party is not willing for a post-poll alliance with the BJP. Vishvanath Mahadeshwar will be Shiv Sena's candidate for the Mayor's post and Hareshwar Worlikar is Deputy Mayor nominee, senior Sena leader Anil Parab told PTI. Neither the Sena, which emerged as the single largest party with 84 seats, nor the BJP, a close second with 82 corporators, has enough numbers to touch the half-way mark in 227-member council. However, the party with the highest number of corporators can get its candidates elected for the two posts so long as other parties do not come together and put up joint candidates. After Geeta Gawli, who won as the candidate of the local outfit Akhil Bharatiya Sena pledging support to the BJP, the party's effective strength has gone up to 83. The party-wise strength in the 227-member council now stood at Shiv Sena 84 plus 4 (independents), BJP 82 plus 1, Congress 31, NCP 9, MNS 7, Samajwadi Party 6, AIMIM 2, ABS 1, Independent 1. After Geeta Gawli, who won as the candidate of the local outfit Akhil Bharatiya Sena pledging support to the BJP, the party's effective strength has gone up to 83. The BJP-Sena relations, as partners in the state and central government, hit a new low in the backdrop of civic elections across Maharashstra, which saw the saffron parties contesting separately and hurling charges at each other. The two parties have been together for nearly three decades but after the recent split, the Sena has even threatened that it may pull out of the BJP-led government in the state any time. Meanwhile, Bala Nandgaonkar, former MLA of Raj Thackeray-led MNS, said that his party would be happy if a Sena Mayor gets elected. — PTI
