KDMC polls: BJP gears up to test strength in all wards

A senior BJP leader and legislator said interviews of party leaders and activists, who will contest the polls in October, may begin in a week’s time. These interviews would also be held in the wards where Sena candidates were runners-up in the 2005 polls.

“If we enter into an alliance, it will help Shiv Sena, and if we don’t forge an alliance, it will help us,” he said while speaking about the BJP’s stock-taking exercise. He said the local unit was, however, in favour of an alliance with the Sena. “All parties have to do this; it is a routine process,” said a BJP leader from Thane district.

In the 107-member strong KDMC house, the BJP and the Shiv Sena, which hold the reins of power with the help of independents, have 16 and 29 corporators respectively, while the Congress and the NCP have 21 and 23 corporators each. The number of independents in the house is 16, while the Republican Party of India (RPI) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have one corporator each. The Sena- BJP alliance had contested 47 seats in the 2005 polls.

 BJP leader said testing the strength of the party in all wards would provide the party a ground for negotiations if it decides to forge an alliance with the Shiv Sena. The BJP could also ask for wards to be exchanged based on the assessment. He, however, denied that holding interviews of probable candidates for all wards was a way of exerting pressure on the Shiv Sena. The BJP has also seen its former Dombivali MLA Harishchandra Patil who was elected in 2004.