Shiv Sena leadership decides to go solo in Panvel municipal polls

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena leadership is understood to have decided to go solo in the Panvel Municipal Corporation polls, ignoring the suggestion of the local leaders who wanted a pre-election alliance with the BJP.

Panvel in adjoining Raigad district had a municipal council but was upgraded to a corporation last year. The 78- seat corporation goes to its maiden polls on May 24.

At a recent meeting of the party's district unit chiefs, the local leaders had favoured a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, a Sena leader said.

"Their argument was that the party has a limited vote base in Panvel. However, the leadership has decided to go solo in the election," he said.

The election is being seen as a direct contest between Prashant Thakur, the BJP MLA from Panvel, and the Patil clan represented by PWP-I MLC Jayant Patil.

Prashant is the son of former Congress Lok Sabha MP Ramsheth Thakur.

Taking a lead, Prashant, who is also in-charge of BJP affairs in Raigad, today declared the first list of 26 candidates.

Prashant said if the Sena had joined hands with the BJP, the saffron combine would have had a bright chance to win the polls.

"However, if they have decided to go solo, the BJP is ready to take on all competitors and win the corporation single-handedly," he told PTI.

When elections were held for the erstwhile 38-member Panvel Municipal Council on December 16, 2011, the Sena had just three councillors. The Congress, with 21 councillors, was in power then.

The BJP and MNS had zero presence in the civic body.

The PWP-I, which had contested the election under the name Bhartiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksh (BSKP), had 9 members in the civic body. The NCP had 4 members in the Panvel civic body in 2011.

The city, which is broadly part of Navi Mumbai, has a voter population is 4.25 lakh.