Maharashtra: Mahayuti to contest Zilla Parishad, Municipal Corporation elections together
Nagpur, Dec 10 (LatestNewsX) – Maharashtra Revenue Minister and BJP local‑body election chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule announced Wednesday that the Mahayuti alliance – the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP – will present a united front in the upcoming contests for 32 district councils and 29 municipal corporations. He said the partnership will stay intact and added, “The unity of the Mahayuti will remain intact in the Zilla Parishad and Municipal Corporation elections. We have set a goal to achieve 51 per cent of the votes and win, and the Mahayuti will contest these elections together.”
Bawankule spoke to reporters after a meeting that included Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BJP state president Ravindra Chavan. He noted that all district‑level leaders have been instructed to complete the Mahayuti’s local structure, and that while a few seats may see disagreements—perhaps 5 to 10 percent—Fadnavis and Shinde will personally step in to resolve them.
The minister also confirmed that the Mahayuti is gearing up for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election. Although Shiv Sena has demanded 90‑100 seats, Bawankule said seat‑sharing will be decided after a technical review. A committee comprising four members from each of the BJP and Shiv Sena, together with Mahayuti representatives, will meet to discuss the allocation. Any remaining differences will be settled by senior leaders, and the appointment of the Mumbai mayor will be jointly decided by CM Fadnavis, DCM Shinde and Ajit Pawar.
He stressed that DCM Ajit Pawar plays a central role in the Mahayuti and will fight the upcoming elections alongside the alliance. Bawankule clarified that while some workers had raised “differences of opinion” in a handful of places during past local‑government contests, these issues have now been fully resolved. “We had no ‘heartbreak’, only election‑related ‘differences of opinion’,” he said.
The remarks followed accusations from Shiv Sena and BJP members that the parties had poached staff during the recent elections to 264 nagar parishads and nagar panchayats. In several local bodies, the three partners contested against one another, sparking heated exchanges during the campaign.
When asked about the prospect of a separate Vidarbha, Bawankule sharply criticized the Congress, noting that since Devendra Fadnavis’s government came to power in 2014 Vidarbha has seen rapid development. “The BJP believes that small states can develop, and our aim is to give full justice to Vidarbha. The Congress’s decline in this region is due to its neglect of Vidarbha,” he said. He also clarified that the Forest Department headquarters would remain in Vidarbha, given its vast forest cover.
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