In an electoral setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in north Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena pulled off a coup by clinching the mayoral post in the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation (JMC) on Thursday.
The Sena’s Jayshree Mahajan was elected as the Mayor of the Jalgaon civic body after 30 corporators from the BJP crossed over to the Sena, thus bolstering the latter party which hitherto only had a strength of 15 corporators in the 75-seat JMC.
Three corporators from the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen also threw in their lot with the Sena, which took the strength of the latter party’s camp to 48.
While Ms. Mahajan polled 45 votes, the BJP’s candidate, Pratibha Kapse, secured 30 votes.
This is the Sena’s second blow to the BJP in less than a month. Earlier this month, the former party followed a similar stratagem of poaching BJP corporators in the Sangli civic body to dislodge the latter from power.
