While the Shiv Sena, NCP and SP are willing to forge an alliance for the upcoming Mumbai civic polls, most local Congress leaders want the party to go solo and are expecting the high command to give them a city president who can bolster the party.

Even before the Bihar poll debacle, city Congress leaders had been demanding that the party does not side with the Sena and other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners -- Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) -- in the municipal polls slated for January-February 2022. Despite being a part of the MVA, the Congress with 29 seats has been sitting in the Opposition in the 227-seat BMC.