Politics makes strange bedfellows — but none stranger than the BJP and the Congress coming together.

The unthinkable happened in Ambernath, a suburban town near Mumbai, where the two arch rivals joined hands to keep the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena out of power in a civic body.

So shocking was the incongruity of the alliance that the BJP and Congress leaderships on Wednesday moved swiftly to avert political embarrassment.

On Tuesday, councillors from the BJP, Congress and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP came together to announce a new front, the Ambernath Vikas Aghadi, to block the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) in the Ambernath Municipal Council in Thane district — its traditional stronghold. The Sena had emerged as the single-largest party with 27 seats in the 60-member council.

Mahayuti allies — the BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP — had contested the Ambernath
municipal polls separately. The Sena won 27 seats, four short of majority. The BJP won 14 seats, Congress 12, NCP 4, while 2 councillors were Independents.

As the alliance grabbed headlines, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis intervened on Wednesday, directing the BJP’s local unit to immediately sever ties with the Congress and declaring that such an alliance was “not acceptable”. He also ordered the dissolution of another controversial BJP tie-up with the AIMIM in the Akot municipal body.

The Congress leadership responded with equal firmness, suspending all its elected councillors in Ambernath for aligning with the BJP without the party’s approval. The Congress also suspended its Ambernath block president
and dissolved the town executive committee.

“This should not happen at all. It is wrong,” Fadnavis said in an interview with Republic TV. Later, he took a tougher stand, stating: “Alliance
with the Congress and the AIMIM is not acceptable. It will have to be broken.” He added that directives had been issued and disciplinary action would follow against those found responsible.

The local body elections across Maharashtra held on December 20, along with the upcoming civic polls in major urban centres scheduled for January 15, have seen political and ideological lines get blurred in the scramble for power. Allies BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) contested separately in several places, attempting to poach each other’s grassroots cadres.

In the bustling town of Ambernath, the contest was primarily between the BJP and the Sena. The municipal council in Thane district has traditionally been a Sena
bastion, closely associated with party chief and deputy chief minister Shinde. Ambernath falls within the Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency represented by Shinde’s son, Shrikant Shinde.

The BJP mounted an aggressive campaign to wrest control of the council and scored a significant breakthrough by winning the municipal council president’s post, defeating the Sena candidate. However, despite the victory, the party lacked the numerical strength to run the civic body. Local BJP leaders quickly cobbled together an alliance with the Congress and other parties to dismantle the Sena’s long-standing hegemony in the region.

The BJP’s district leadership used the party’s official letterhead to formally inform the authorities about the formation of the alliance with the Congress and NCP councillors. BJP corporator Abhijit Karanjule Patil was appointed the leader of the new front. Defending the BJP-Congress tie-up, Patil
said the objective was “to free the municipal town from fear and corruption”.