BJP silence on BMC pact worries Shiv Sena

MUMBAI: Matoshree is yet to get a formal response from the BJP on a pre-poll alliance with Shiv Sena for the upcoming BMC elections.
“We haven’t received any formal proposal from the BJP, neither for the municipal corporation nor for the zilla parishad polls,” Sena MP Anil Desai told mediapersons on Saturday. The statewide civic and zilla parishad elections—including the Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik municipal corporations—are scheduled for February.A formal announcement is expected soon.
While preliminary talks are already in progress between the two parties. Anil Desai and Sena minister Subhash Desai finished the first round of talks with revenue minister (BJP) Chandrakant Patil in Mumbai recently. More rounds will follow soon, said BJP sources.
However, Matoshree is a tad worried over the BJP’s reluctance to commit itself on the alliance issue. Poll talks will be in a limbo if the BJP doesn’t act with alacrity and offer the Sena a proposal stating its conditionalities andits final demand for BMC seats, Sena sources said on Sunday. “A formal proposal from the BJP would have proved the party’s earnestness to take the poll talks to the next stage. But Patil has not given us anything in black and white,” sources added.
The city BJP has set a quota of 114, of the total 227 BMC seats, for itself. However, Matoshree is in no mood to accept BJP’s demand.
The BJP is playing on the Sena's fears of losing control over the country’s richest municipal body, minus the BJP as its ally, said analysts.
“We have nothing to lose if we fail to annex the BMC. But, the Sena will lose its hitherto uncontested political space in Mumbai if it can’t retain keys to the BMC ‘tijori’ (kitty),” said the city BJP functionary.
Moreover, the Sena wants the BJP to ink a pact for all civic and zilla parishad elections, across the board, in Maharashtra. “Selective partnership will be meaningless. If the BJP is serious about alliance, then it should team up with the Sena in every election,” said Desai. The BJP may find the Sena condition unamenable. “There can’t be an omnibus poll pact with the Sena. We may team up with them in, for instance, the Pimpri-Chinchwad civic election, but in Mumbai we may want to go solo. The Sena should take into account the fast-changing political scenario,” said a BJP legislator.