MVA eyes Sangli ZP control amid Mahayuti rift

Kolhapur: Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) members in Sangli have intensified their efforts to secure the crucial figure of 31 needed to elect their president in the Sangli Zilla Parishad following alleged internal friction within Mahayuti. MVA secured 30 seats — just one short of a majority in the 61-member body.The Mahayuti alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP held a numerical edge, though NCP's six members had not yet taken a clear stand. Internal friction also emerged within the alliance, with Sena members reportedly unhappy with certain BJP politicians due to clashes during the recent campaign. Sensing an opportunity, MVA strategists — NCP(SP) MLA Jayant Patil, Congress MLA Vishwajeet Kadam and MP Vishal Patil — began working to draw Sena and NCP members to their side.On Thursday morning, Kadam met deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar of NCP at her residence in Pune. While Kadam denied discussing politics, he said he visited the deputy CM because he had not met her since she took the oath of office.Kadam, who delivered a resounding defeat to BJP in his Palus-Kadegaon constituency, told TOI, "We are trying to form the ZP administration. The numbers clearly show where the mandate lies. We have previously worked with some of the newly elected ZP members and are trying to bring them along. We also had a pre-poll understanding with some parties, and their candidates were fielded with a shared objective. It is now the moral responsibility of those members to support MVA."Later in the day, senior NCP members met in Sangli to decide whether to support MVA or stay aligned with Mahayuti. In the ZP tally, BJP won 16 seats, followed by Sena (8), NCP (6) and Rayat Kranti Party (1). BJP needed the backing of both Sena and NCP to secure control of the ZP. Complicating matters, half of the BJP's seats— eight from Jat and Atpadi — were won by MLA Gopichand Padalkar's candidates. Both NCP and Shiv Sena reportedly had reservations about Padalkar, giving the MVA an opening to exploit."We will convey our decision to our state president and deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, who will take the final call," NCP district president Nishikant Bhosale Patil told TOI.