Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, March 18 The BJP won the posts of president and vice-president of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Zilla Parishad in Maharashtra unopposed here on Wednesday, drawing the ire of ally Shiv Sena, which alleged betrayal.
Avinash Galande was elected as the president, and Jitendra Jaiswal as the vice-president of the ZP, an official said.
The process to elect them was held in the district collector office premises here.
In the election to the 63-seat Zilla Parishad last month, the BJP bagged 23 seats, followed by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena with 21 seats. Shiv Sena (UBT) won nine seats, and the NCP won four.
On Wednesday, as no other party fielded their candidates for the posts, BJP's Galande and Jaiswal were declared winners for the post of president and vice-president respectively, the official said.
The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, as well as rival Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by Uddhav Thackeray, remained absent during the process, and out of the total 63 members, only 31 were present, he said.
Later during the day, Shiv Sena MLA and former state minister Abdul Sattar accused the BJP of betraying them.
"Our party leader Uday Samant and BJP state president Ravindra Chavan were in talks to forge an alliance here. But this is for the first time that we witnessed this kind of betrayal here," he said.
His criticism invited retaliation from the BJP leader and minister Atul Save, who said, "We were waiting for them (Shiv Sena). Had they come with us, we would have given them the post of ZP vice-president. But Sattar wanted to make his son the president, which is why they tried to break the alliance..."
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve claimed that minister Save promised to give Rs 30 crore for the development of an area of one of the members in the Opposition, as well as offered crores of rupees to his party members. "From where all this money came?" he asked.
Responding to the allegation, Save said, "None of my associates met the Shiv Sena (UBT) members. If Danve is levelling an allegation, he should tell the name of that officer."