Next Mumbai mayor to be from party with maximum seats, says BJP's Danve ahead of BMC Polls

Mumbai: Amid suspense over the fate of pre-poll alliance between the bickering ruling allies in Maharashtra, state BJP president Raosaheb Danve on Friday said the next mayor of Mumbai will be from the party, which wins the maximum number of seats. The upcoming elections to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be a trial of survival for the ruling Shiv Sena while ally BJP, which is now the dominant partner in Maharashtra, is seeing the electoral battle to take control of Asia's richest civic body to create space for itself in the city's political landscape. Political observers say the election will primarily be a Shiv Sena versus BJP battle. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will take a decision on the alliance with Shiv Sena, which on its side, has maintained that it will only forge an alliance if their is a "honourable pact" coming their way. However, given the frosty relations between the ruling partners, the two are yet to come on a meeting ground for discussions on a possible alliance. Amid all this, Danve's statement assumes significance amid reports that the Sena, the junior partner in the Fadnavis-led state government, is not keen on ceding its prime position in India's richest civic body to "big brother" BJP. "Our true rival is Congress-NCP. However, once war (poll battle) begins, we will demolish anyone who comes in the way," Danve said, without naming the Sena, which has been ruling the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the last 20 years, with BJP as its junior partner. "We want to have an alliance with the Sena. The mayor will be from the party, which gets the maximum seats," Danve said. "We want to have a tie up with Sena. However, some workers feel otherwise, based on the issue of transparent administration," Danve said. There has been no progress yet on the joint parleys between the two parties. The polls to Mumbai and nine other corporations were announced on Wednesday. A BJP leader said joint parleys are unlikely tomorrow as it is 'Makar Sankranti'. "Since the days of late Bal Thackeray and Pramod Mahajan, the formula was that the party with the highest seats got to have its mayor. However, our (BJP) strength has increased and attention will have to be paid to this factor also," Danve said. "BJP has emerged as the big brother in Maharashtra politics," Danve said. Elections to the ten civic bodies will be held on February 21.