Pune: BJP and Shiv Sena — alliance partners at the Centre and in Maharashtra — have locked horns in most of the state’s 29 municipal corporations going to the polls on Jan 15.The saffron parties are going solo in over 15 municipal corporations after the last attempt for an alliance between the number one and number two parties in the state assembly failed on Friday. As the deadline for withdrawing nominations ended on Friday, the picture in the 29 municipal corporations became clearer — partners in both Mahayuti and MVA are set to take on their allies in almost all the civic bodies.On the day the municipal corporation poll schedule was announced, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said BJP and Shiv Sena would fight the elections in an alliance, while another Mahayuti ally, NCP, would get into “friendly fights” in most civic bodies. But in reality, it turned out to be the opposite — BJP and Shiv Sena ended up contesting against each other in over 15 municipal corporations. The two parties managed to form alliances only in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar, Panvel, Chandrapur, Nagpur and Kolhapur.The Shiv Sena brass was hoping for an alliance with BJP in big cities such as Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Even after the talks failed at the local level, minister Uday Samant was optimistic that before the deadline for withdrawal of nominations, a formula would be worked out. However, the efforts and negotiations did not lead to alliances.“We waited for instructions from our leadership. But till Friday afternoon, there was no message of an alliance with BJP. The scenario is clear now. We feel it was our mistake that we relied on BJP and did not field candidates on all the 165 seats in PMC,” said Ravindra Dhangekar, the Shiv Sena’s Pune unit chief.Though the local office-bearers of BJP and Shiv Sena are blaming each other over the failed talks, political observers feel that BJP “is actually testing its strength to expand the party’s base ahead of the 2029 assembly polls”.Political analyst Parimal Maya Sudhakar told TOI, “Though BJP managed to maintain a good strike rate in the 2014, 2019 and 2024 assembly polls, the party did not get an absolute majority. Now with a massive number of MLAs (132) on its side, BJP is using the municipal corporation polls as an opportunity to gauge its strength in the state.”After fighting the assembly polls together, Mahayuti partners BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP are not continuing the coalition in the civic bodies polls. “The parties in govt are exploiting the space of the opposition as well. Since the opposition in the state is not that strong, the Mahayuti partners are not feeling threatened. They are now utilising the vacuum in the opposition camp to expand their base,” Sudhakar said.
