The changed political equations in the State reflected in the Aurangabad Deputy Mayor election on Tuesday, with the Shiv Sena’s Rajendra Janjal emerging victorious with the support of the Congress and the National Congress Party (NCP).
Mr. Janjal’s win extended the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition formula to the municipal level with the aim to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in local bodies at any cost.
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), where the Sena and BJP had jointly shared power for nearly 15 years, now has an MVA coalition with the Sena holding the posts of Mayor (Nandkumar Ghodele) and Deputy Mayor.
Mr. Janjal secured 51 votes, while the BJP-backed Independent Gokulsingh Malke won 34 votes. Zafar Khan of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) secured a mere 13 votes, despite the AIMIM being the second-largest party in the AMC.
The Sena is the largest party in the 115-seat House with 29 corporators, while the AIMIM has 24. The BJP has 23, while the Congress and NCP have 11 and four respectively.
Breaking point
Despite the Sena and the BJP sharing power for a considerable period in the AMC, the estrangement of the two saffron allies at the Centre and in the State has changed the arrangement.
The final rift between the two parties in the Aurangabad occurred on December 13 after deputy mayor and BJP leader Vijay Autade resigned over a proposal moved by Sena corporators to felicitate Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Mr. Autade had also claimed that the MVA government had halted the water supply scheme meant for Aurangabad sanctioned by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Earlier on Monday, senior Pune Congress leader Mohan Joshi had instructed Bhausaheb Jagtap, the Congress’s group leader in the AMC, to ensure that all party corporators voted for the Sena’s candidate.
“It is the policy of the State Congress leadership to ensure that the socially divisive BJP is kept out of power at the local body level, be they civic body polls or zilla parishad elections. Hence, we have supported the Shiv Sena in Aurangabad in keeping with the MVA formula,” Mr. Joshi said.
He said similar tactics had helped win the day for the MVA in the Ahmednagar zilla parishad elections on Tuesday, which saw the NCP and the Congress ending the sway of Congressman-turned-BJP leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil in the ZP.
AIMIM suspension
Meanwhile, the AIMIM said it will suspend some of its corporators for not voting for the party candidate. “Five of them were absent for voting while some have cross-voted. The party will accordingly be charging them with anti-party activities,” said Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel, who is also the AIMIM State president.
