Twelve newly elected Congress councillors in Maharashtra’s Ambernath municipal council, who were suspended for aligning with the BJP, formally joined the saffron party late on Wednesday, dealing a setback to the Congress and reshaping local power equations in Thane.

The defection strengthens the BJP’s efforts to keep its ally, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), out of power in Ambernath, a traditional Sena stronghold in the Mumbai suburban region.

In the 60-member civic body, Mahayuti allies BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the NCP had contested separately. The Sena had emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats, four short of majority. The BJP won 14 seats, Congress 12, NCP 4 and 2 councillors were Independents.

After the councillors from the BJP, Congress and the NCP joined hands on Tuesday to block the Sena from forming the council leadership, the two national parties had moved swiftly to avoid an embarrassment.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis directed the BJP’s local unit on Wednesday to immediately snap the alliance, while the Congress responded by suspending all its elected councillors involved in the move. Late on Wednesday night, all 12 suspended Congress councillors formally joined the BJP.

Confirming the development on Thursday, Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan justified the mass defection, saying it was driven by a commitment to development rather than political opportunism. “People elected these councillors on the promise of development. They believe that only through the BJP can the promises made to the people be fulfilled effectively,” Chavan told reporters.

Chavan, who hails from Thane, has been aggressively working to curtail the Shiv Sena’s dominance in its traditional bastions. Deputy chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde acknowledged the “unholy alliance” had hurt him and that he had raised the matter with the BJP leadership. “I spoke to the BJP leadership and told them that the incident was against
our ideology,” Shinde told a news channel.