Overview
- Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena says four Ajit Pawar-led NCP councillors and one independent have withdrawn from the BJP-led front and joined it, taking the group’s tally to 32 in the 60-member Ambernath body.
- Shiv Sena has submitted the updated support list to the district collector, who will decide recognition, after earlier post-poll moves saw the BJP induct 12 Congress councillors who were then suspended by their party.
- The fractured result left Shiv Sena with 27 seats, BJP 14, Congress 12, NCP 4 and independents 2, with 31 needed for a simple majority.
- Shiv Sena leaders say the NCP councillors cited discomfort over sharing power with Congress in the BJP-backed Ambernath Vikas Aghadi, a move the BJP has downplayed as a local development.
- Campaign tensions widened statewide as Uddhav and Raj Thackeray held a joint rally attacking the BJP over poaching, unopposed wins and planned tree-felling in Nashik, and as BJP minister Ganesh Naik accused Shinde’s administration of massive financial irregularities in Navi Mumbai.