The Congress on Wednesday took swift disciplinary action against its local leadership in Maharashtra’s Ambernath after 12 of its municipal councillors joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the leadership of the Ambernath Municipal Council. The move, described by the party as “unacceptable,” comes amid a wider political storm over unusual post-poll alliances in civic bodies across the state and has highlighted growing tensions between local-level pragmatism and central party discipline.

The suspensions were ordered on the instructions of Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal, underscoring the party’s intent to send a strong message that unauthorised alliances with political rivals will not be tolerated.

What action did the Congress take?

Vice president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), Ganesh Patil, formally communicated the decision through a letter to Ambernath Congress block president Pradeep Patil. In the letter, Ganesh Patil informed him that he was being suspended from the party for entering into an alliance with the BJP without the knowledge or approval of the state leadership.

“This is not a good thing, so as per instructions by the state president, Harshwardhan, you are being suspended from the party,” the letter stated bluntly.

Along with the block president, all 12 Congress councillors elected to the Ambernath Municipal Council were also suspended. The disciplinary action effectively freezes the Congress’s organisational presence in the civic body, at least for the time being.

Why did the Congress act so strongly?

In his letter, Ganesh Patil pointed out that the Congress had contested the Ambernath civic elections independently, on its own symbol, and had secured 12 seats. However, the decision of its local leaders to join hands with the BJP came to the notice of the state leadership only through media reports.

“We have fought elections on the Congress symbol and won 12 seats. However, without informing the state leadership or the state office, you have entered into an alliance with the BJP. This is not a good thing,” the letter said, reiterating that the action was taken on the express instructions of state president Harshwardhan Sapkal.

For the Congress, the episode was particularly embarrassing because it came at a time when the party has been positioning itself nationally and in Maharashtra as the principal ideological opponent of the BJP. A visible partnership between the two parties, even at the municipal level, risked confusing supporters and undermining the party’s political messaging.

What happened in Ambernath?

The controversy stems from the results of the Ambernath Municipal Council elections and the post-poll manoeuvring that followed. The 60-member civic body produced a fractured verdict when votes were counted.

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena emerged as the single largest party with 27 seats, falling just four short of the majority mark of 31. The BJP won 14 seats, the Congress secured 12, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got four seats, and two seats went to independents.

Despite being the largest party, the Shiv Sena was sidelined after the BJP, Congress and NCP came together under the banner of the ‘Ambernath Vikas Aghadi’. With the support of an independent councillor, this combine crossed the majority mark, enabling it to form the civic body’s leadership. On Wednesday, a BJP councillor was elected as the president of the Ambernath Municipal Council.

The development shocked political observers, as it involved the Congress aligning with the BJP to keep the Shiv Sena out of power in a municipality where the latter had the highest number of seats.

Wider political fallout in Maharashtra

The Ambernath episode is not an isolated one. It is part of a broader controversy over post-poll civic alliances in Maharashtra, including a similar arrangement in Akot in Akola district, where the BJP was reported to have formed a coalition with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and other parties. These developments have raised uncomfortable questions for all major parties about discipline, ideology and local-level decision-making.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reacted sharply to the developments, making it clear that alliances with the Congress or AIMIM were unacceptable for the BJP. He warned that action would be taken against BJP leaders who had entered into such arrangements without authorisation and said instructions had already been issued to scrap these alliances.

The Congress’s decision to suspend its councillors in Ambernath mirrored this hardline stance, suggesting that both national parties are keen to prevent local experiments from snowballing into political embarrassments.

Local compulsions versus party ideology

At the heart of the Ambernath controversy lies a familiar dilemma in Indian politics. Municipal councils wield significant power over local governance, budgets and contracts, and local leaders often prioritise numerical strength and control over ideological consistency. In Ambernath, the immediate goal for Congress councillors appears to have been keeping the Shiv Sena out of power, even if that meant partnering with a long-standing rival.

However, such calculations often clash with the broader political strategies of state and national leaderships, particularly in a highly polarised environment where party identity and messaging matter deeply.

What happens next?

With the Congress having suspended its local leadership, the future of the Ambernath civic body’s power arrangement remains uncertain. While the BJP-led coalition currently holds a majority, continued political pressure from the state leaderships of both parties could force a rethink or reconfiguration.

More broadly, the episode has reinforced the message that while local leaders may attempt pragmatic alliances to secure power, the high commands of major parties like the Congress and BJP are unwilling to allow such arrangements when they threaten ideological clarity or political credibility.

As Maharashtra continues to witness complex and shifting political equations, the Ambernath case stands out as a cautionary tale — one that highlights how quickly local manoeuvres can escalate into state-level controversies, and how firmly party leaderships are prepared to act when lines are crossed.