India, Feb. 20 -- Barely weeks after a bruising civic election battle, the rivalry between forest minister Ganesh Naik's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena has erupted once again in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), converting a statutory transport committee election to be held on Friday into a direct contest for political supremacy in the satellite city.

At stake is the appointment of 12 party-nominated members to the powerful transport committee, which oversees the civic transport body, operational contracts, routes and key financial decisions.

The flashpoint emerged after the civic administration circulated the February 20 general body agenda stating that if voting became nece...