India, Feb. 3 -- In a civic election marked by unexpected twists, the Eknath Shinde led-Shiv Sena on Monday chose to register its newly elected corporators with the Konkan divisional commissioner as a single party. It has thus ignored the suggestion of its senior alliance partner, the BJP, that the two parties register as a single group in the BMC.

"We are an independent party and decided it would be best to retain our independent status in the BMC. If we had registered together, then the whip issued by the BJP would have been binding on us. Now we are free to make our own decisions in the BMC," said a senior Sena leader.

Left with no choice in the matter, the BJP too registered its newly elected corporators with the Konkan divisional c...