BJP leaders hold primary talks with SS (Shinde); workers ‘no’ to alliance

 

 

Though Bharatiya Janata Party top leadership in State is very clear about alliance with Shiv Sena Shinde group in municipal polls, but confusion reigns supreme in Vidarbha. In Nagpur, senior leaders like Prof Anil Sole conducted primary talks with Sena about alliance in Nagpur Municipal Corporation polls, though no final decision is taken yet. Most workers of BJP opposed alliance. According to them, already over 3,000 aspirants are in the queue competing for 151 seats so, it will be difficult to adjust some seats for constituents. On an average 20 candidates are competing for one ward. BJP has chalked out a strategy to prevent the exodus but it will fail if the party shares seats. To add to the problems, Shiv Sena leader MLC Krupal Tumane is aggressively batting for 50 seats while Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) group has asked 15% of the total seats.

 

When ‘The Hitavada’ talked to some of the aspirants, they clearly opposed the seat-sharing. A very senior leader said, the equations won’t work if seats are shared with the constituents. “It is very difficult to prevent candidate-hopping, but we are endeavouring for the minimum damage. We are sure that if anyone leaves our party, he or she would surely join Shiv Sena (Shinde group). BJP may have post-poll alliance which is but obvious,” the leader pointed out. If alliance is to be taken into consideration then apart from NCP, Sena, it has constituents like Bahujan Republican Ekta Manch, Republican (Athawale), People’s Republican Party etc. BJP will face trouble if they don’t go solo, this leader warned. 

 

 

 

 

 

To get more number of seats in its kitty, Congress is taking hard efforts for the pre-poll alliance with its own constituents. “In 2012, NCP won 9 seats, but then it came down to one in 2017. In 2012 the Congress and NCP contested polls as an alliance. We want to repeat our performance. We have asked NCP and Shiv Sena to come up with the number of seats they want. We have also asked the leaders of both parties that they should submit a proper reason as to what makes them feel they would win in those constituencies,” said MLA and Congress City President Vikas Thakre. Congress also received upto 1,000 applications from the aspirants and its leaders are conducting interviews at Deodia Bhavan.