Civic clash of allies

Election to India's richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is slated for February 2017. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena, who are ruling partners in the civic body, are using every opportunity to checkmate each other. When Shiv Sena attacked Shrihari Aney, who quit as state advocate general following an uproar over his support for statehood to Marathwada, the BJP countered by raking up the frequent fires at the Mulund and Deonar dumping grounds in Greater Mumbai. While Sena succeeded in cornering big brother BJP in Aney's resignation, it is now the BJP's turn to embarrass Shiv Sena about the alleged realtor-contractor nexus for the dumping ground fires and the poor state of roads.