BJP helps Congress win Parbhani Municipal Corporation mayor post

AURANGABAD:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have been at loggerheads over most issues in the state, but they set aside their differences to tie up in Parbhani to keep the dominant Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena away from power.

As many as eight members of the BJP in the Parbhani Municipal Corporation helped Congress nominee Mina Warpudkar, wife of former minister Suresh Warpudkar, win the mayoral election against the NCP candidate on Tuesday. The Congress, however, did not reciprocate the BJP gesture and went to elect its own man Syed Sami Sahebjan alias Maju Lala as the deputy mayor.

Local BJP leaders claimed that they had decided to support the Congress nominee for the sake of development and to keep Shiv Sena and the NCP away from power.

The BJP failed to make inroads into Parbhani during the elections held in April. On Tuesday, they flung a surprise when eight of their members raised hands in favour of the Congress nominee, Warpudkar, to take her tally of supporters to 40 in the house of 65. The Shiv Sena with its six members and an independent remained absent from the election process, while the NCP supported an independent Shaikh Alia Anjum in mayoral election. Eventually, Alia got 18 votes.

In deputy mayoral election, the Congress threw its weight behind its own man Maju Lala against the BJP nominee, Vidya Praful Patil. The Sena and the NCP remained neutral, making it an easy sailing for Maju Lala with 32 votes. Patil polled 8 votes, said Rajkumar Jadhav, a senior Parbhani civic body official.

Parbhani district collector P Shiv Shankar was the presiding officer, who declared both the Congress nominees elected as mayor and deputy mayor in the presence of municipal commissioner

Rahul Rekhawar

, said Jadhav.

State BJP spokesperson Shirish Boralkar said Parbhani had remained largely neglected during the NCP rule for five years. “Congress was expected to support the BJP in the deputy mayoral election. However, some development might have taken place at the local level due to which they did not reciprocate our support,” he said.

It may be noted that Parbhani is considered a Shiv Sena bastion and an NCP stronghold. The sitting

Parbhani Lok Sabha

member and elected representatives in the assembly constituencies are from the Shiv Sena.

In the April 2017 civic polls, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 31 seats in the 65-member general body. The NCP finished second with 18 sets. The BJP managed to increase its tally from two members to eight and Shiv Sena had to contend with six seats. Two independents were among victorious candidates.