Uddhav, Mahajan defer meetings with Nashik corporators

Nashik: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and former district guardian minister of BJP Girish Mahajan deferred meetings with their respective party corporators in Nashik as they were busy with political developments in the state. Both the leaders have told their party office-bearers that they will address the corporators in the next 48 hours.
Meanwhile, BJP shifted its corporators from a resort in Sindhudurg to a hotel in Goa late on Monday.
According to a BJP leader, Mahajan will meet the corporators on Tuesday morning in Goa and then take a call on the mayoral candidate. Of the 65 corporators that BJP has in the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) , 41 had reached Sindhudurg first. Another seven joined them on Monday. Now, BJP has shifted all these 48 corporators to Goa. “Eight of our corporators are still unreachable, but we are trying to contact them. Of the 57 corporators who are in contact, 48 have been sent to Goa. The remaining 9 are in Nashik for party-related works,” said a BJP leader.
Some BJP corporators have taken nomination forms for the mayoral post, though the party’s official candidate is yet to be decided.
Currently, the BJP is in power in the NMC. There are 122 seats in the NMC, but two are vacant as one corporator each from BJP and Sena had quit to contest the assembly elections. The combined strength of the three non-BJP parties — Sena, NCP and Congress — is 46. If the five MNS corporators and four others throw their weight behind these three, the combined strength of the non-BJP parties would be 55. Sena sources said Congress, NCP and MNS are backing them. “The mayor post will go Sena. Other seats are to be shared. Some BJP corporators are also in touch with us,” said a Sena leader. “As many as 30 of the total 34 Sena corporators are in Mumbai. A meeting wi-th Thackeray was expected on Monday, but it was deferr-ed. He will address them eith-er on Tuesday or Wednesday.”