As many as 32 of the 227 seats in the Mumbai civic body will see a direct contest between the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and the Shiv Sena (UBT)-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, as no strong third-front candidate will be in the fray on these seats.
This situation has arisen as the Congress-Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi (VBA) alliance has not put up any candidates in these seats.
While Mahayuti partners BJP and Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde, have formed a team for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS under Raj Thackeray have come together to “preserve” the Marathi language and culture.
Mumbai civic polls: Congress ally VBA fails to get candidates in 20 seats
Sources said the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) faced difficulties in fielding candidates in 21 of the 62 seats allotted to it in Mumbai. Party sources said the VBA chose not to risk the seats by nominating unsuitable candidates in some constituencies, while issues related to incomplete documents cropped up in others.
