Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS) BJP State President Ravindra Chavan on Friday announced that the party will take action against Narayan Chaudhary and the corporators who supported him for rebelling against the party whip in the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation mayor election.

Chavan told reporters that the party’s Bhiwandi local committee had forwarded Narayan Chaudhary’s name for the mayoral post with a majority.

Accordingly, the party asked Chaudhary to file his nomination. However, after extensive discussions, the BJP state-level leadership ultimately declared Sneha Patil the party’s mayoral candidate to avoid local disputes.

“Considering Chaudhary’s local-level differences with Vilas Patil of the Konark Vikas Aghadi, the party leadership decided at the state level to change the mayoral candidate to avoid disputes and to protect the interests of the party. Even after that, several efforts were made until the last moment to prevent Chaudhary and the corporators who supported him from rebelling,” said Chavan.

He added that, however, those efforts did not pay off.

Chavan’s warning comes hours after, in a dramatic turn of events, rebel BJP candidate Narayan Chaudhary clinched the Mayor’s post in the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC).

Despite a last-minute strategic shift by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Chaudhary secured a decisive victory with 48 votes, aided by a significant cross-party alliance and a split within the BJP ranks.

The election witnessed high-voltage drama from the start. Shinde’s Shiv Sena withdrew both its candidates, Balaram Chaudhary and Suchita Rupesh Mhatre, to extend support to Vilas R. Patil, the former Mayor and leader of the Konark Vikas Aghadi.

However, this move failed to consolidate enough power to stop Narayan Chaudhary.

In a surprising development, six BJP corporators broke ranks to support Chaudhary, joining forces with the Congress and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction)to ensure his win.

Earlier, several candidates had filed nominations, including Adv. Mayuresh Vilas Patil, Pratibha Patil, Javed Dalvi (Bhiwandi Vikas Aghadi), and Tariq Momin (Congress).

During the special general body meeting, Presiding Officer and Thane District Collector Shrikant Panchal declared all applications valid.

Candidates were given 15 minutes to withdraw.

Following this, Tariq Momin, Javed Dalvi, Suchita Mhatre, Balaram Chaudhary, Mayuresh Patil, and Pratibha Patil withdrew their nominations, setting the stage for the showdown.

–IANS

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