MUMBAI: Raj Thackeray ’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Fridayfound itself at an all-time low in its 11-year existence with six of its seven corporators in the BMC defecting to the Shiv Sena The Sena’s minor coup in India’s richest civic body that it controls came just a day after BJP won a municipal by-poll from Bhandup, taking its tally to 82 and inching closer to the Sena tally of 84 (one seat in Kandivli fell vacant recently after the death of BJP corporator Shailaja Girkar, and a by-election is due there soon). BJP leaders had on Thursday claimed the party would soon have more corporators than Sena in the 227-strong BMC House, and BJP MP Kirit Somaiya had said there would be a by-election in one more ward soon as a sitting corporator of another party was set to quit.The MNS defections, which do not attract provisions of the Anti-Defection Act as more than 1/3rd of the corporators have shifted allegiance, took the Sena tally to 90. It has the support of 3 others too. The MNS is now left with just one corporator in the BMC —first-time ‘nagarsevak’ from Kurla Sanjay Turde has decided to stand by his leader Raj —and one MLA (Sharad Sonawane from Junnar) in the legislative assembly.It had won 13 assembly seats in 2009 and 27 BMC seats in 2012 and but has since been in decline, having drawn a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and bagged one seat in the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections.What surprised many BMC watchers was that among the corporators who switched sides was MNS group leader in the civic body Dilip Lande, who had on Wednesday accompanied Raj Thackeray for his meeting with BMC chief Ajoy Mehta where the party demanded action against illegal hawkers.Flanked by the new Sena entrants at his Matoshree residence on Friday evening, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said, “I welcome these six into our party. They were all originally Shiv Sainiks and when they showed willingness to come back, we were happy to induct them.”Responding to Kirit Somiaya’s allegations that the ruling party in the BMC had “kidnapped” corporators and offered crores to “purchase” them, Uddhav said, “Donkeys should not be making claims of horse-trading. If they call us a mitra paksha (ally), why are they getting a stomach ache? They should be happy for us.”Uddhav said all legal formalities for the corporators’ entry into the Sena had been completed. In the afternoon Sena MLC Anil Parab accompanied the six to the divisional commissioner’s Konkan Bhavan office where they pledged support to the Sena in writing. “There is no truth in the allegations (about horse-trading). All six have merged with our party willingly,” Parab said.Uddhav said the other good news for Sena on the same day was that the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of its candidate Raju Pednekar who fought the February 2017 BMC poll from Jogeshwari. Pednekar had lost to independent candidate Changez Multani, who was recently disqualified over his caste certificate. With Multani out, Pednekar, who had come in second, is all set to gain control of the ward. Once BMC formally ratifies his position as corporator, the Sena tally will go up to 91, putting it further ahead of the BJP.Asked if Friday’s developments were triggered by BJP’s win in Bhandup the previous day, Uddhav said, “If in one day we could do so much, they must understand the strength of our party.” He also alleged BJP’s win in Bhandup was not because of the Modi wave but the sympathy factor. The BJP had offered a ticket to Jagruti Patil, daughter-in-law of Congress corporator Pramila Patil who passed away in April. Jagruti Patil defeated her Sena rival by 4,800 votes.Former MNS leader in the BMC Sandeep Deshpande said the party was in the process of writing to the Anti-Corruption Bureau asking it to “check the financial transactions of the six corporators.” MNS leader Shirish Sawant meanwhile wrote a letter to the divisional commissioner claiming a few of the party’s corporators had been offered “inducements.”Explaining why he along with five others had defected, Dilip Lande chose not to speak against the MNS but said, “On Thursday, some party gave hints about coming in the way of the Marathi manoos. We all know how much Sena has done for the manoos, so we felt Marathi ‘satta’ (power) should be intact and decided to join the Sena.”