The Congress party has launched a blistering attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of blatant double standards after the BJP formed an unlikely post-poll alliance with Congress councillors in Maharashtra's Ambernath Municipal Council while punishing its own leaders elsewhere for similar ideological compromises.

Following the December 20, 2025 local body elections in Thane district, the unusual Ambernath Vikas Aghadi (AVA) coalition comprising the BJP, Congress, and Ajit Pawar-led NCP seized control of the 60-member council, sidelining the single largest party Shiv Sena and drawing sharp criticism for bridging arch-rivals in a pragmatic bid for power.

The awkward arrangement prompted the Congress high command to swiftly suspend its 12 newly elected councillors along with the local block president on January 7, 2026, only for all 12 to formally join the BJP late that night, a development welcomed by Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan as a boost to development-focused governance.

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State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant highlighted the BJP's hypocrisy, noting that the saffron party, which routinely champions a "Congress-free India," took no disciplinary action against its leaders who initiated the AVA alliance offer, exposing a willingness to abandon principles for municipal control while preaching ideological purity nationally.

Sawant further drew parallels with the BJP's controversial tie-up with Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM in Akot Municipal Council, likening it to pre-Independence power-sharing between Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League, and asserted that such moves confirm covert coordination between polarizing forces to engineer communal division for electoral gains, even as the BJP issued a show-cause notice to its Akot MLA.

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