"No Mayor possible without NCP": Nawab Malik on BMC polls

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 12 (ANI): Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik on Monday highlighted the party's significance in the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, claiming that the party will decide the majority in the otherwise "hung" house.
Speaking with ANI, Nawab Malik said, "I am saying this from the very beginning that BMC will have a hung house and no Mayor will be possible without NCP's help. So if anyone thinks there's a swing, then they are misled."
When asked about entering the BMC election alone and not with Sharad Pawar's faction as in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Nawab Malik said, "It was the party workers' wish to fight alone. Whenever the merger of both NCPs is to happen, Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) and Ajit Dada (Ajit Pawar) will take a call on it. I won't comment on the timing of the merger, but it's a sure thing that workers of both factions are willing and hoping that both NCPs must come together."
Over the recent alliance of the BJP with Congress and AIMIM in Ambernath and Akola, respectively, to claim a stake at both municipal councils, Nawab Malik criticised the largest party of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, of which the NCP is also a part.
"What the BJP did in Akot (Akola) by going with AIMIM was an approval of the thing when we say that the BJP is having AIMIM as its B team. Similarly, in Ambarnath BJP also took Congress corporators with them, but we chose to support the NCP. BJP, which way claims to have a Congress-free India but is taking support from the same Congress corporators," he said.
This comes as the Maharashtra politics heat up for the upcoming elections to 29 municipal corporations across the state, including the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).
Polling will be held on January 15, with counting scheduled for January 16. (ANI)