BMC Elections: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
The Congress' clear refusal on Saturday to help the Shiv Sena take charge of Mumbai civic body could nudge the Sena and the BJP - allies in the Narendra Modi government who fought a bitter battle for control of the country' richest municipal body - to join hands again. But the big question is: Who will get the Mayor's chair.
For the nearly two decades that the BJP was decidedly the junior partner in the alliance with the Shiv Sena, this wasn't a problem. The chair went to the Shiv Sena.
At 84, the Shiv Sena is still the single largest party in the 227-seat Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC but is way off the majority mark of 114. The BJP, which contested the civic body polls on its own rather than play second fiddle to the Sena, is a close second with 82 seats. Too close for comfort, and an undeniable claim to the mayoral post, it would seem.
That probably is one reason why neither side intends to blink first.
From the BJP, the only senior leader pitching for an alliance between the two estranged allies was Union Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.
"New equations are being formed in the state so BJP and Shiv Sena should come together," he said. But Mr Gadkari has made it clear that this was the call that the party boss Amit Shah and
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who led the party to its best ever performance in the BMC, had to take.
"We are on the path to transparency. Those who support it can walk with us; those who don't can't, cannot be with us," Mr Fadnavis said, a reference to an oft-repeated point through the campaign trail when he accused the Sena-led corporation of an opaque governance, and corruption.
The Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray was equally non-committal. Will BJP and Shiv Sena come together? "Jai Maharashtra" was the response.
The Congress with its 31 corporators could bail out the Shiv Sena that's chasing the 114 mark with its 84 Corporators and a few independents. But any support, direct or tacit could cost the Congress in UP. Today it made it clear that it will not support the Sena.
"We will not support anyone in BMC. We will propose our own candidate," said Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam. However, if the Congress NCP and Samajwadi Party together prop up a mayor candidate then the Shiv Sena's mayor candidate could emerge as a winner.