Will contest Mayor elections on our own, no talks with Shiv Sena yet: NCP

Amidst discussions between Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over forming government in Maharashtra, NCP leader Nawab Malik said that Congress-NCP alliance will field candidates in the upcoming Mayor elections in the state and there have been no talks with Shiv Sena on the same.

There are 27 municipal bodies where Mayor elections are due on November 22 including Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Aurangabad among others.

"We are in talks for state government formation with Shiv Sena but that is completely different from the Mayor elections in various cities on November 22. We will field our candidates of NCP and Congress wherever we can. We have not done any talks about Mayor elections with Shiv Sena yet," NCP chief spokesperson and party Mumbai president Nawab Malik told ANI over the phone.

The 2.5 years tenure for Mayors of these municipalities got over in September itself, but they were given extension till November due to the Assembly elections in the state.

Earlier this week, Urban Development Department had done a lottery for the reservation of Mayor posts in various municipalities.

As per the same, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Kalyan-Dombivali, Sangli, and Ulhasnagar have been reserved for the Open category and Navi Mumbai, Jalgaon, Bhivandi, Akola, Panvel, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Aurangabad, and Chandrapur have been reserved for women in Open category.

Mayor post for the municipal corporation of Vasai-Virar is reserved for Scheduled Castes and Mira Bhayandar is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Women corporators from the Scheduled Castes will be the head of Ahmednagar and Parbhani corporations.