MUMBAI: With both the major saffron allies voted in equally by the city voter, the Mathematics for the Mayoral election of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has got more complex.
The Shiv Sena has 84 and the BJP has 82. Though both of them had claimed support of four independents, the BJP is likely to gain the support of at least three of them barring one, who is actually a Shiv Sena rebel. But, even after doing so, the magic figure of 115 still remains a distant reality for any of them to achieve, without each other's support.
MNS, who has got seven seats and had been saying during the campaign that they would emerge as the kingmaker, too stands little chance to play the role. Since Shiv Sena had rejected MNS's proposal for alliance before the election, they are likely to support the BJP, may be just by abstaining during the Mayor's election, a BJP leader said.
Another possibility, which the Shiv Sena is said to be testing the waters with, is that it would ally with the Congress, which has 31 corporators.
However, any open equation between the two parties would confirm BJP's allegations of their tacit understanding and would be politically counter productive for both of them. This makes the possibility less practicable.
The NCP, SP, MIM with nine, seven and three seats respectively, have too small numbers to be able to influence the election.
Another remote possibility is BJP getting support from the Congress along with the independents.
However, as Uddhav mentioned on Thursday, there would be no haste in pursuing any of these equations over the weekend.
The new mayor will have to be elected before March 8. Hence, the political drama of tall claims of support is likely to continue throughout the entire next week.