MUMBAI, Jan. 20 -- 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, de-recognising the AVA and recognising the alliance between the Shiv Sena and four members of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as a "pre-poll alliance". 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 secured 27 seats. 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 bagged 12 seats, the NCP 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". 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 later suspended 12 elected members who had allied with the BJP. On January 9, the four NCP councillors switched sides and aligned with the Sena, taking the Shiv Sena Ambernath Mahayuti Aghadi's tally to 32, including one independent. The Thane collector later issued a letter, certifying the formation of the new alliance, and derecognising the AVA. Opposing this, AVA moved the high court on January 16, stating that the collector had no adjudicatory or discretionary power to record a change in the composition of a duly formed aghadi, once the same had been certified in accordance with the law....