Posing an open challenge to the estranged ally Shiv Sena which rules the roost in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said nobody can stop BJP from coming to power in the civic body.
Election to the MCGM, country's richest civic body, is due early next year.
Fadnavis was addressing the party cadres at a function where he felicitated BJP MLA Ashish Shelar for his reappointment as Mumbai unit president for the next two years.
Shelar, incidentally, has been taking on Sena aggressively in the recent past.
Speculation is rife that BJP is likely to snap its electoral ties with the Sena for MCGM elections.
"No one can stop BJP from coming to power in the MCGM," the CM said, asking the cadres to gear up for winning the election.
The face of the city had to be transformed, he said, and expressed resolve that it would happen by the 2019 Assembly polls. "There is a vast difference between BJP and other political parties. We do not indulge in politics," he said.
A survey for providing permanent houses to the poor in Mumbai is underway, he said, adding, "some political parties use slum-dwellers for vote bank politics."
"The government is planning to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the foundation-stone laying ceremony for the Mumbai-Nhava Sheva trans-harbour link in October," he said.
The NDA government at the Centre had speedily issued eight clearances for the planned airport at Navi Mumbai, he pointed out.
