Mumbaikars will repose faith in BJP: Kirit Somaiya

A day after Shiv Sena ended its over two-decade-old pre-poll alliance with BJP for BMC elections, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya today said Mumbaikars will repose faith in his party and it will install its first ever mayor in the cash-rich civic body.
He, however, said that after winning the February 21 polls, his party will seek cooperation from all the 227 corporators in the civic house to ensure transparent governance.
"People will repose faith in BJP for transparency (in municipal governance). After the results are out, we will appeal to all 227 corporators to cooperate with us. The appeal will not only be directed to Shiv Sena but each and every corporator," he said.

Asked if it meant a post-poll alliance with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, Somaiya said: "It is not like that. Mumbaikars will repose faith in us and then to ensure transparency and transformation, we will request all to cooperate with us."
Speaking to reporters here earlier in the day, Somaiya suggested the Sena walked out of the alliance after BJP insisted on bringing transparency in governance of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
"If our friend is upset because of our insistence (for transparency), we are sorry for that. But our fight is for making Mumbai free of mafias and there will be no compromise on that," Somaiya, who represents Mumbai North-East constituency, reiterated.

The parliamentarian also said he will come out with a black paper on scams in the BMC, which the Sena led along with BJP for the past two decades.

Thackeray had yesterday announced in Mumbai that his party will go solo in the elections to the BMC, considered to be the richest civic body in Asia.
Buoyed by the success in the recently held civic polls in Maharashtra and the 2014 Assembly polls, BJP, which played junior partner to the Sena for about 25 years in the state politics, is optimistic of installing its first Mayor in the BMC.
In the 2012 BMC elections, the Sena had bagged 75 seats, while BJP had wrested around 30 wards.