Mumbai polls:'Cong must fight alone to retain political space'

The Congress, which shares powerwith the Shiv Sena and the NCP in the Maharashtra government,should contest all 227 seats in the next year's elections forthe Mumbai civic body on its own to ensure that it doesn'tlose the political space in the financial capital, cityCongress president Bhai Jagtap said on Tuesday.

During his interaction with select media persons,Jagtap stressed the BJP is the main political enemy of theCongress.

''In the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)elections, the Congress won 31 seats. We lost more than 30seats by a narrow margin of 500 to 1,000 votes. We will waitfor a decision of the party high command on this. Retainingthe political space in Mumbai is important,'' he said.

Jagtap said contesting the civic poll independentlywill have no bearing on the MVA alliance.

''When the Congress and NCP were in power (inMaharashtra before 2014) they had fought all local electionsindependently,'' he said.

In the Mumbai civic body, Congress is the mainOpposition party while the Shiv Sena and the BJP are rulingparties.

Jagtap reiterated his demands for free water supplyfor slum-dwellersin Mumbai and the complete waiver ofproperty tax for houses measuring up to 500 sq feet.

The Congress leader said he would soon launch'padyatras' or foot marches in differnt parts of Mumbai togauge the mood of the voters and to galvanise the partycadres.

He said the 'padyatras' will begin from Sion Koliwadain February and AICC in charge HK Patil will flag it off.

Jagtap said the Congress was pursuing the property taxwaiver issue with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

''Even though the Shiv Sena-led civic body had passed aresolution to waive property tax of houses up to 500 sq ft andgranted 60 per cent concession for tenements measuring up to700 sq ft in paying the property tax, the then BJP governmentwaived only 17 per cent 'general component' of the propertytax,'' Jagtap claimed.

He said the Congress will also seek change in theDevelopment Control (DC) rules in view of the growingpopulation and taking into consideration the need for moreaffordable housing in Mumbai.

He demanded that civic ward reservation should bechanged for the upcoming civic polls.

''The BJP is our principal opponent,'' he said.