NCP to contest BMC polls, says won't wait for Congress

NCP is mulling over an alliance with Congress, but says it will not keep waiting till the last minute for it to materialise

National Congress Party said it plans to contest for all 227 seats at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) during the civic body's elections scheduled early next year.

"If an alliance with Congress does not materialise, we will contest all 227 seats," told the city-unit president, Sachin Ahir,  adding that party's preparations for the upcoming elections have begun.

He said the NCP will wait for the alliance to materialise till a specific time and not till the last minute.

Ahir claimed that the recent delimitation of wards has hurt the ruling Shiv Sena deeply.

Of the 227 seats, 149 are kept open for general category candidates (74 for women and 75 for men), 61 for OBCs (31 for women and 30 for men), 15 for SCs (8 for women and 7 for men) while 2 seats are reserved for ST nominees (1 each for female and male).

The wards that were put under the open category in the last elections (in 2012) are this time reserved for various categories, as per the rotation rule for quotas.

Currently, the country's richest municipal body is jointly ruled by Shiv Sena and BJPand have been in power since the past two decades.

The Sena won 76 seats and BJP 32 in the last polls. They were later supported by over a dozen Independent corporators. Congress secured 50 seats, MNS 28, NCP 14 and Samajwadi Party bagged 8, among others.

Some corporators, however, termed the exercise of redrawing electoral boundaries as "unfair", and said it will adversely affect their calculations and preparations for the forthcoming polls.