BMC Elections: BJP manages to pitch in Geeta Gawli, battle still on for mayoral election

Mumbai: The fight between the saffron parties — Shiv Sena and the BJP — is heating up. With the mayoral elections round the corner, both parties are pitching for Independents.

A day after Geeta Gawali met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, the re-elected sitting corporator from Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday and declared her support to BJP making it clear that the party was in no mood to leave the battleground without the mayor’s crown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told Fadnavis last week to let the Sena stake claim to the mayor’s post.

Also Read: Confident that Sena-BJP will join hands in Mumbai says Minister

Just like its former ally Sena, the BJP, too, is using all tactics to rope in the independent corporators in order to claim majority and give Mumbai its first BJP mayor.

While speaking to The Free Press Journal, Geeta said, “The CM has assured that he would help me become member of the standing committee for the next five years. He has also accepted the condition of naming me as the chairman of health committee. Hence, I have decided to support the BJP for the mayoral elections. These were the conditions which I had put forward to the Sena too. Now, I have no reason to refuse the BJP.”

Geeta had on Thursday visited Matoshree, the residence of Uddhav Thackeray, and had detailed discussions with senior leaders of the party. But all the brainstorming was to no avail as she declined to support them. Sources said the Sena had turned down her demands of making her member of standing committee and also that of heading the health committee.

Apart from Geeta, another independent corporator, Mumtaz Rebar Khan, who has been elected from Bandra West, has also given her nod to support the BJP. This has now increased the number of BJP corporators from 82 to 84. However, the party is yet to surpass the number of corporators that have come in support of Sena as the Uddhav Thakeray-led party has a total 88 corporators.

Also Read: Mumbai Civic polls, Uddhav Thackeray meets Akhil Bharatiya Sena candidate Geeta Gawli at Matoshree

The Congress, too, is thinking to field their candidate for the mayor’s post and hoped to get support from the Nationalist congress Party (NCP). Going by this, it would be now interesting to see as to whom other parties would support. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP) have seven corporators each while the All India Majlis-e-Muslimeen (MIM) has two corporators. These parties could prove to be the trump card in the race to head the civic body for the next five years.

Geeta Gawli, the lone winning candidate from the Akhil Bharatiya Sena in the recent elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), is being wooed by both the Shiv Sena and the BJP as the two parties race to take control of the civic body.

Gawli (34), the eldest daughter of convicted gangster Arun Gawli, has met Sena leaders to work out the modalities of her support to the Shiv Sena. She has also met CM Fadnavis.