Maharashtra: Aurangabad Sena-BJP alliance on the rocks over water scheme

A day after the deputy mayor of Aurangabad in Maharashtra submitted his resignation to the municipal commissioner following the state government's stay on a water supply project here, 31 other corporators, mostly from the BJP, followed suit on Saturday.

Deputy mayor Vijay Autade from the BJP had on Friday said he was resigning as former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had sanctioned a much-needed water supply scheme worth Rs 1,680 crore for Aurangabad, but it was stopped after the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena government under Uddhav Thackeray took over last month.

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BJP functionaries said its corporators had submitted their resignations to the party city president Kishanchand Tanwani. Speaking to PTI, BJP city president Kishanchand Tanwani, "The total number of corporators who resigned on Saturday is 31. Aubade resigned on Friday and we will wait till Monday to see if it is accepted."

Giving a break-up of those who had decided to quit, Tanwani said, "This consists of 23 BJP corporators, two co-opted members and six out of the 17 Independents in the civic house."

He said the alliance with the Sena was over, adding that "we will speak to the state leadership (of BJP) and take the next step".

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The two saffron parties had fought the 2015 Aurangabad civic polls together in 2015. In the 115-member civic house, the Sena is the largest party with 29 seats, followed by the AIMIM with 24, BJP with 23, 17 Independents, 11 from the Congress, five from BSP, four from NCP and two of RPI(D).