Ahead Of Mumbai Civic Polls, NCP Says It Could Contest All 227 Seats

Mumbai: Sounding confident ahead of local body polls in Mumbai, the Nationalist Congress Party today said it could contest all 227 seats if an alliance with the Congress doesn't work out. It will wait for the alliance to materialise till a specific date, and not the last minute according to NCP city unit president Sachin Ahir.

"If an alliance with the Congress doesn't materialise, we will contest all 227 seats and the preparations are on for the same," he said.
Recent delimitation of wards was likely to hurt the Shiv Sena most, Mr Ahir said.

"There is room to suspect the BJP's hand, which is the dominant partner in the state government, is hurting its ally politically," he said.

At present, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation - the country's richest municipal body - is jointly ruled by the Shiv Sena and the BJP, an alliance which has been unchallenged for the last 20 years. However, over the last few months cracks between the two parties have become too big to deny.

Of the 227 seats, 149 are kept open for general category candidates (74 for women and 75 for men), 61 for Other Backward Castes (31 for women and 30 for men), 15 for Schedule Caste (8 for women and 7 for men) while 2 seats are reserved for Schedule Tribe nominees (1 each for female and male).

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The wards that were put under the open category in the last elections (in 2012) are this time reserved for various categories, as per the rotation rule for quotas.

The Sena won 76 seats and BJP 32 in the last polls. They were later supported by over a dozen independent corporators. Congress secured 50 seats, MNS 28, NCP 14 and Samajwadi Party bagged 8, among others.

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Some corporators, however, termed the exercise of redrawing electoral boundaries as "unfair", and said it will adversely affect their calculations and preparations for the forthcoming polls.