BMC polls: NCP second list out, no mention of alliance with Congress

“While the majority of the candidates in the two lists are first-timers, around 50 per cent of them are below 30 years of age and well educated. While it is a common perception that educated people do not want to join politics, this time we are fielding candidates with good educational background. We have engineers, doctors, lawyers etc among the candidates announced,” said NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik.

Out of the 45 candidates in the first list, six are sitting corporators, while the second list of 31 candidates all are freshers. At present, NCP has 14 corporators in the civic body.

Malik said the party planned to contest at least 200 seats, adding there would be no change in the list of 71 names announced in the two lists. “As of now, there will be no alliance and the Congress will go it alone in the civic polls,” he said.

Taking a dig at both the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issue of alliance between the two parties, Ahir pointed to how negotiations were going on between Mumbai’s “contract mafia” (read Shiv Sena) and “Nizam’s father” (read BJP). “Public is not blind, they are watching everything that is happening. On one hand, BJP calls Shiv Sena chief a contract mafia sitting in Kalanagar, Bandra East, and on the other hand Shiv Sena says that BJP government is the ‘father of Nizam’s government’. However, despite of all this they are still exploring possibility of forming alliances. Are they going to run the civic body this way,” said Ahir.

He also alleged that offering to waive property tax at this stage by the Shiv Sena was a desperate move to claim credit before elections.

Slamming Sena for offering “old” election sops to influence voters, Ahir said, “If the Shiv Sena is offering to enhance civic health facilities now, ahead of 2017 BMC elections, what had it been doing while ruling the BMC for over past two decades. Providing quality health facilities is the priority of the civic body, which it has failed to. Hence, they are promising it to the voters now.”