Elected corporators will decide next Mumbai mayor: NCP leader Nawab Malik

Mumbai, Jan 2 (PTI) Every resident of Mumbai is a "Marathi" and the elected corporators will decide who becomes the next mayor of of the megapolis, Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik said on Friday.

The BJP has claimed that a city will get a Muslim mayor if the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance wins the January 15 election to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The Ajit Pawar-led NCP, which is an ally of the BJP at the state level, is contesting the BMC elections separately.

"Every person living in the city is a Marathi. We have given tickets to several North Indians and the mayor will be ours," said Malik, a former Maharashtra minister, speaking at a press conference.

He rejected the allegation that the NCP is contesting separately and not as part of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance to divide the Muslim vote and undercut the opposition. Muslims do not constitute majority in any of the 94 wards where the NCP has fielded its candidates, he said.

His party was part of the Mahayuti alliance in the state as a political adjustment and has not deviated from its ideology, Malik added. PTI MR KRK