Politics is a funny business; you never know when one party allies with another party after the polls to wrest the power. Some alliances are predictable but some are unheard or unbelievable alliances. One such Unheard Alliance happened in Ambarnath (Maharashtra) after the local body elections recently. Can you imagine the BJP allying with Congress? Yes, it happened in Ambarnath just two days ago, at the local level, without even the state-level leaders of both parties being aware of it.
In Ambarnath, where Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena won the maximum number of seats in the elections. (It is to be noted that both BP and Shiv Sena fought the election separately, although at State level they are in alliance). The BJP extended support to the Congress and the NCP, keeping the largest party out of power. The seat tally was Shiv Sena-28, the BJP-14, the Congress-12, and NCP-4.
The BJPs Councillor Tejashree Karanjule was elected the Council President, defeating Sena’s Manisha Walekar, and took the oath on 7th January 2026.
Similarly the BJP’s local unit in Akot Municipal of Akola, formed an alliance with elected councilors of AIMIM, who later abandoned the party.
As the news reached the BJP’s State Headquarters, the State Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis angrily reacted “ This is unacceptable. What has happened in Ambarnath and Akola is not okay. If this has been done by the local leadership, it will have to be broken. This is indiscipline. We will take action against them. Alliance with the Congress, AIMIM will not be tolerated. I have given orders to take actions.”
As per Shiv Sena spoke person “We had fought the elections separately, not in alliance. But when we won the majority of seats, we went to BJP for an alliance. While the senior leaders were discussing the arrangements, the local leaders went ahead and give a letter to the collector to keep us out of power. One should ask this question to the BJP leadership.”
As per the local Congress spoke person “ It is wrong to say the BJP and Congress came together in Ambarnath. All other political parties’ including independents kept aside their party differences to join hands against corruption of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. This is why Ambarnath Vikas Aghadi was formed. We have initiated disciplinary action against the councilors.” Later in the day, the Congress suspended president of Ambarnath block Congress committee Pradip Patil, and 12 elected councilors. After being suspended, Pradip Patil remained defiant. He claimed that 12 Congress Corporators had already decided to join BJP before they were suspended.
A similar situation emerged in Akot Municipal Council as well.
The BJP formed the ‘Akot Vikas Manch’ with the AIMIM, besides support from Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde’s Shiv Sena, NCP (Alit Pawar), NCP (Sharad Pawar), and two local parties. Here the BJP won 11 seats in 35-member council, AiMIM two seats, with support of other parties , the alliance’s strength stands at 25. The Congress, with 6 seats, and the Vanchit Bahujan Party with two, remained in the opposition.
As per the BJP’s local spoke person , the AIMIM council members left their party and joined hands with them, which AIMIM is denying.
In both the incidents, the BJP has lost its face, as the top State leaders of the party were taken by surprise by the actions of their local leadership. There can be many reasons for actions by the local leaders;
- The State leadership was ignorant about the problems at the local level.
- Secondly after working from grass root levels, the local leadership also develop aspirations for coming to power, and this they want to achieve by any means.
Everybody is keeping their fingers crossed for the next developments in both the cases. The problem in Ambarnath Council is going to be typical, with President of the Council is already elected by the new councilors, who is from the BJP. In all probability the new ruling party will be Shinde’s Sena, and BJP will have to give support to them as they already have a State level alliance. Now it will be the call of Shinde’s Sena to accept BJP’s President of Council or go in for fresh election for the post of Council’s President.
In the end, lets wait for the future development in both the cases.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
8th January 2026