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Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar will Sunday launch his mission to lead the powerful Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), currently led by ally Shiv Sena, two years before it goes to the polls.

The NCP’s ‘Mission BMC 2022’ will be flagged off at the party convention in Mumbai, and it has put up banners across the Maharashtra capital announcing as much.

Although Pawar will try to reach an understanding with his allies in Maharashtra’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — the Shiv Sena and the Congress — sources said the NCP is also readying itself to contest the civic body’s 227 seats alone.

The NCP currently has nine seats in the BMC, India’s richest civic corporation, while the Shiv Sena has 90 and the Congress, 31. The BJP, which was part of the ruling alliance until the Shiv Sena split ranks to join the MVA in 2019, now sits in opposition with 82 corporators. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Iteehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has two seats, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has six and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), one. The remaining six are held by independents.

The BMC polls, the next big political event in Maharashtra, will also be a major test for the MVA government. With Mumbai undergoing a major transformation due to various infrastructure and development projects, the party that rules the BMC will have an even more powerful hold on the city than they have been known to have so far.

The NCP had a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in the 2017 BMC polls, while the Shiv Sena and the BJP, allies in government at the time, went solo over conflicts about seat-sharing. The Shiv Sena has led the BMC for over three decades now.

In the present political circumstances, while the BJP is on its own, the MVA constituents are yet to spell out their strategy for the BMC polls. Therefore, when Pawar flags off his party’s ‘Mission BMC 2022’, it will solely be an NCP event.

“No meetings have been held with the Congress party and the Shiv Sena on seat-sharing. That will come later,” senior NCP leader and state minister Nawab Malik told reporters Friday.

“We are hopeful that all the constituents of the MVA will come together for the BMC polls,” added Malik, currently the lone NCP MLA from Mumbai.

Also Read: In Maharashtra’s political stalemate, NCP chief Sharad Pawar is the sole winner

Minimal presence in Mumbai

The party is said to be ready to contest all seats alone, but Pawar is banking on the Shiv Sena and the Congress to deliver his dream.

The NCP is known as a western Maharashtra Party and has a minimal presence in Mumbai.

The NCP chief has been an important part of strategising for the civic polls in the past as well, but this is the first time he is said to be “aggressively focussed” on dislodging the BJP from the BMC.

According to Malik, an action plan will be put in place after the mission launch. “Ward committees will be established. The NCP has various cells and all of them will work together,” Malik said.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will help his uncle put in place a blueprint for the mission 2022, Malik added, saying the Pawar duo will orient and guide about 5,000 NCP workers on election preparedness

According to multiple NCP sources, Pawar has told his party members that the NCP has to strengthen itself in Mumbai to get an upper hand at bargaining for power after the BMC polls. With the BJP seeking MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s help to push its Hindutva agenda, the NCP chief has told his party members that all development work in Mumbai must be showcased for a bigger impact with the voters.

A similar message, the NCP sources said, has also been delivered to the MVA government, with Pawar said to have asked leaders to talk more on development plans rather than issues that are divisive in nature.

Elaborating on the NCP’s Mumbai plans, Malik said Pawar was keen on setting up a joint committee comprising members of all the three MVA constituents to draft an effective strategy to showcase the development plans of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.

Congress in better stead

The Congress may be in a better position than the NCP in Mumbai but remains a divided house amid differences between senior leaders Sanjay Nirupam, Milind Deora, Priya Dutt and Eknath Gaikwad. Their turf wars were among the primary reasons behind the party losing crucial seats in former stronghold Mumbai in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, said several Congress sources.

“They have a lot of ego issues. Sanjay Nirupam made the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) faction-riddled. Factionalism was already there, but he worsened it. The central leadership, too, has let the factionalism stay,” said an MRCC office-bearer.

“After Nirupam was eased out, Milind Deora was brought in. But factionalism did not reduce, it just grew and became a monster.”

According to sources, many Congress members have shown an inclination to move to the NCP as Ajit’s “aggressive fighting spirit” seems to be a big lure. A number of Congress corporators feel the party has to move fast if gains are to be made in Mumbai.

“The Congress has to begin the process of rebuilding the confidence among the voters. Unless we do not solve the leadership crisis in the party, the voters will not stay with us. The NCP will definitely gain,” said a Congress corporator.

The BJP, meanwhile, has its committed votebank in the city that has for years been loyal to the party. It will be difficult to wrest them away from the BJP, said a senior Shiv Sena functionary.

“The Congress party can emerge as a very strong force if they stop fighting among themselves. Since the Shiv Sena will want to have direct contests with the BJP in many of the constituencies, the NCP may not benefit much from a tripartite seat-sharing,” said the Shiv Sena leader.

Also Read: Sena-Congress ‘friendship’ goes back 50 yrs — a story of helping each other grow in Mumbai

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