Mumbai: City unit Congress president Sanjay Nirupam, who is under fire from his own party leaders over his ‘style of functioning’, on Monday said he had a limited role in picking candidates for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls and that his ‘intervention’ was only seen in only five per cent of the list of 227 candidates.

Mr Nirupam said names of candidates given unanimously by the district units in the city have been cleared for the February 21 polls. “I intervened only in five per cent of the names where I felt the district units failed to properly allocate the candidates and where sitting corporators did not figure in the list,” Mr Nirupam, said.

However, Mr Nirupam steered clear of commenting on internal bickering in the city unit over allocation of tickets. Responding to BJP city president Ashish Shelar’s allegations of ‘match-fixing’ between Congress and Shiv Sena for 42 municipal wards, Mr Nirupam termed it a ‘diversionary tactic by the BJP.’

Mr Nirupam further added, “BJP is deliberately making such wild allegations to divert the electoral discourse. At this point, the discourse should be on the performance of the BJP-Sena combine in the civic body for the last 20 years and how it has failed to provide basic amenities.”

Mr Nirupam added that snapping of ties between Sena and BJP was part of a “secret plan” so that the issue of their performance in the BMC gets diverted while they campaign against each other, recalling statements by BJP president Amit Shah that Mumbai civic polls would be a “friendly match.”