Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat said he has asked local office bearers to initiate disqualification proceedings against these corporators and file a formal complaint with the commissioner. Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat said he has asked local office bearers to initiate disqualification proceedings against these corporators and file a formal complaint with the commissioner.

Congress-Shiv Sena alliance suffered a serious setback in Bhiwandi Thursday, losing the mayor as well as deputy mayor’s post in the municipal corporation, with 18 Congress corporators having voted against the party in the mayoral elections.

In the 90-member Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation, the Congress is the single largest party having won 47 seats in the 2017 civic body elections. The BJP has 19 while the Shiv Sena has 12. The Konark Vikas Aghadi has four seats. Even before the Congress and the Shiv Sena had joined hands in Maharashtra, the two parties had attempted an alliance in Bhiwandi in 2017 which saw Javed Dalvi of the Congress being elected as mayor while Sena’s Manoj Motiram Katekar becomming the deputy mayor.

The tables, however, turned in the mayor’s elections Thursday. Congress’s Nishika Raka was defeated by Pratibha Patil of the Konark Vikas Aghadi, which has four members in the house. The KVA was supported by the BJP. Patil managed to get 47 votes while Raka got only 41 votes. Similarly, for the deputy mayor’s post, KVA candidate Imran Khan won the election after polling 49 votes as against 41 received by Sena’s Bala Choudhary. During the 2017 elections, the Congress candidate for the mayor’s post had bagged 67 votes.

The reduction in votes was blamed on the cross voting done by 18 Congress candidates, who had reported missing for the last two days.

“We have received information that 18 Congress corporators have voted against party’s official candidate. This is an extremely serious matter. We have asked local office bearers to initiate disqualification proceedings against these corporators and file a formal complaint with the commissioner,” Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat said. Bhiwandi Congress president Soaib Guddu has also been served a show-cause notice by the party, seeking an explanation for the results.

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