MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday disposed of a petition filed by the Ambernath Vikas Aghadi (AVA), challenging the order passed by the Thane collector on January 9, recognising the alliance between the Shiv Sena and four members of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as a “pre-poll alliance” and de-recognising the AVA alliance in the civic body elections.

Calling the switching of sides by the NCP “globetrotting”, a division bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Abhay Mantri has directed the collector to grant the parties – the BJP, Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena – a hearing and pass a reasoned order within 21 days.

The impasse arose after the December 2, 2025 elections. The council consists of 60 seats, including 59 elected councillors and one directly elected president. In the poll, the Sena emerged as the single-largest party by securing 27 of the 60 seats up for grabs. However, the BJP, which bagged 14 seats, won the post of municipal council president through direct election but is well below the halfway mark to take control of the municipal council. In the elections, the Congress was in third place with 12 seats, the NCP in fourth with 4 seats, and independents bagged two seats.

To cobble together a majority, the BJP on December 31, 2025, formed a front with the Congress, NCP and two independent councillors, called the “Ambernath Vikas Aghadi” to keep the Sena out of power. Their combined strength was 32, past the halfway mark. On January 7, 2026, the Thane collector acknowledged the AVA as a “pre-poll alliance”.

The Congress suspended its 12 elected members who had allied with the BJP, with the 12 councillors then joining the BJP. But, on January 9, the four NCP councillors switched sides and aligned with the Sena, which along with one independence member took their combined strength to 32, past the halfway mark.

The Thane collector took note of the change and issued a letter, certifying the formation of another aghadi, namely “Shiv Sena Ambernath Mahayuti Aghadi”, and derecognised the AVA.

Opposing this, AVA moved the high court on January 16, through senior advocate Girish Godbole and advocate Chaitanya Nikte, stating that the collector had no adjudicatory or discretionary power to recognise, certify or record a change in the composition of a duly formed and certified aghadi, once the same had been accepted and certified in accordance with the law.