While it was the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) aim to take control of the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday said that surveys showed that his ally, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) was poised to get more seats in the upcoming BMC election.
Speaking in Nagpur during a two-day NCP conclave, Mr. Pawar, the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly said there was “a sympathy” for the Sena (UBT) faction in Mumbai city due to the manner in which former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government (of the NCP, the Congress and Mr. Thackeray’s Sena faction) was toppled after the present CM and ‘rebel’ Sena leader Eknath Shinde’s intra-party revolt in June last year.