The Congress’ defeat in the local bodies elections continued when its candidate for the Bhiwandi mayoral election was defeated by two votes.
The BJP, Samajwadi Party, NCP and RPI joined hands to defeat Congress-Shiv Sena alliance in the Bhiwandi mayoral election. The Congress candidate for the mayor’s post lost by two votes, while two of its corporators remained absent. Interestingly, one of the absentees, Dr Noor Ansari was elected as deputy mayor.
In the civic elections held in Bhiwandi in April, no party was able to get clear majority in the 90-member House. The Congress had emerged as the biggest party, with the SP and Shiv Sena winning 16 seats each. Apart from that, the NCP won nine seats, BJP got eight seats, local Konark Front won seven seats, the RPI won two seats and there were seven Independent candidates.
In the mayoral election, the Congress decided to form an alliance with the Sena. The Congress also had the support of three Independent corporators, but two of their own corporators remained absent for the voting. Pratibha Patil of the Konark Front won the mayoral election. She got 45 votes and Congress’ Misbah Khan got 43 votes.
Reacting to the defeat, local Congress MP Suresh Tawre said, “Local party workers were against the alliance with the Sena, but their views were not taken into consideration. I had written to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, state Congress president Manikrao Thakre and AICC observer for Maharashtra Mohan Prakash that we should not go with the Sena.”
However, senior Congress leader Kripash-ankar Singh claimed that the decision to go with the Sena was taken at the local level. “Mr Thakre was of the opinion that the Congress should join hands with equal-minded parties. But we have no idea as to what politics took place at the local level at the last moment,” Mr Singh said.