Mumbai Mayor manoeuvres on as Fadnavis dials Shinde on registration as ‘Separate’ group

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called up Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde here on Tuesday, after which there are doubts if Shinde would go ahead with his plans to register victorious corporators of his party as a “separate” group, independent of the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a total strength of 227 corporators, while 114 seats are needed for a majority. The BJP has emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, but falls short of the majority on its own. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena has 29 seats, taking the alliance’s total to 118, which is above the required majority mark. The Shinde-led Sena had staked its claim to the post of the Mayor of Mumbai, though the BJP has also staked its claim to the post.

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According to sources, Shinde had made preparations to get his 29 victorious corporators registered as a separate group in the BMC, independent of the BJP-led Mahayuti ruling alliance, about which there are doubts and speculation after Tuesday’s phone call from Fadnavis. The picture is not entirely clear yet, but indications are that after the phone call from Fadnavis, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena seems to have cancelled the registration of his Sena as a separate group on Tuesday. Neither is it known when exactly a joint BJP-Shinde Sena group will register itself as a Mahayuti alliance group.

There is also speculation that a joint registration might happen on Wednesday (January 28) or Thursday (January 29), though there has been no official statement about the same from both the BJP and the Shinde-led Sena. There are also indications that the election to the post of Mayor of Mumbai may get delayed, due to which Mumbai will get a mayor only by February, sources said.

Meanwhile, an official notification was issued on Tuesday that the election for the post of mayor and Deputy Mayor of BMC will be held next week. So far, the procedural precedent was that when a new house is formed, and a new mayor is elected, a senior corporator would act as the presiding officer, but as per new rules, the present BMC municipal commissioner, Bhushan Gagrani, will be the presiding officer.

Significantly, according to the old rules, senior corporator Shraddha Jadhav of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena ought to have been the presiding officer. Sources also said that discussions are going on between leaders of both the Shinde-led Sena and the BJP for the posts of Mayor, Deputy Mayor of the BMC, as well as chairpersonship of various statutory committees and special committees.

Later on Tuesday, when Fadnavis was asked if Shinde’s move to register his party’s group separately was shelved after his phone call to Shinde, Fadnavis replied to media persons, “While forming a group, percentages have to be considered. Therefore, sometimes it is beneficial to unite, and sometimes it is beneficial to separate. In the end, leaving the posts of mayor and deputy mayor, all other posts are decided based on the percentage of the total number of corporators elected. We are making estimates accordingly. Based on that, we will decide whether it is beneficial to unite both the groups or whether it is beneficial to separate them”.

When asked about the allegation that Shinde moved to register his group of Sena corporators separately, which was shelved due to the BJP’s interference, Fadnavis said, “There is no such thing as interference. We are two people who work together. We discuss and decide after the discussion. If we decide to register together, we will decide only after deciding. There is no interference in this. There is only a percentage calculation in group registration. We will do whatever combination of percentages is created to get maximum members in the standing committee”.

However, according to Shinde-led Sena sources, Eknath Shinde had concluded that if he registers his corporators jointly along with the BJP as a Mahayuti group, he would have no options other than staying with the entire BJP for the five-year term and listening to the BJP. Hence, Shinde decided to hedge his bets and register his Sena as a separate group in the BMC and not with the BJP.

Sources said that according to Shinde’s calculations, the first risk in a joint Mahayuti group registration is that it would have only a single group leader, and since the BJP has more victorious corporators, a BJP corporator would become the Mahayuti group leader in the BMC. Shinde also fears that his Sena corporators may be left out on various special committees and standing committees. Also, under a joint Mahayuti group registration, both the BJP and the Shinde-led Sena would get a single party office, but under separate group registrations, both the BJP and Shiv Sena would get separate party offices.