The BJP’s local unit in Ulhasnagar has decided to sit in opposition in the municipal corporation after a dispute over seven nominated corporator posts escalated into a public confrontation with the Shiv Sena, though the final decision on ending the alliance rests with the parties’ senior leadership.
The decision was conveyed by BJP district president Rajesh Vadhrya, MLA Kumar Ailani and other local leaders after the mayor declared two BJP nominees and five Shiv Sena nominees for the seven positions. The BJP has argued that its strength of 37 corporators entitled it to four of the posts, while the Shiv Sena should have received three. It has said it will challenge the mayor’s decision in court.
The Shiv Sena has rejected the allegation of an unfair allocation. Its position, as reported by Times of India, is that only two of the four candidates proposed by the BJP were valid and that the remaining posts were filled through the prescribed process. The dispute has therefore shifted from a disagreement over nominations to a wider contest over the functioning and political control of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation.
The BJP has also announced that its local unit will not cooperate with Kalyan Lok Sabha MP Dr Shrikant Shinde in future election-related work. BJP leaders said their differences were with the newer political groupings associated with the Kalani group rather than with traditional Shiv Sena workers, several of whom they said continued to maintain cordial relations with the BJP.
Both sides have since exchanged personal allegations. BJP leaders accused the entry of people associated with the Kalani group into the Shiv Sena of changing the civic body’s political equation. Shiv Sena leader Kamlesh Nikam, the husband of Ulhasnagar mayor Ashwini Nikam, countered by alleging that Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan was linked to the “Manchekar gang”. That allegation has not been independently established. BJP leaders subsequently rejected Nikam’s remarks and levelled allegations against several individuals, which were also reported as claims by the party and not independently verified.
The confrontation briefly moved outside the civic body on Saturday night after BJP office-bearers, angered by Nikam’s remarks, gathered near his residence and threatened to “teach him a lesson”, according to the report. Police reached the spot, while Shiv Sena workers later assembled outside the residence in support of Nikam. Security was increased and members of both groups left the area.
The local BJP leadership’s decision is not yet a formal termination of the alliance at the municipal level. Whether the BJP continues or ends its civic arrangement with the Shiv Sena will be decided by the party’s senior leadership. Until then, the nominated-corporator dispute remains the immediate trigger for a broader breakdown between the two Mahayuti partners in Ulhasnagar.