Mumbai: Leaving no stone unturned in the attempt to keep his flock intact in the civic body, Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday held a meeting of the erstwhile Sena corporators from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Shivaji Park. Over 90 Sena corporators turned up in a show of strength.
Party sources said that the focus is now on retaining the existing former corporators after betrayal from a seemingly major chunk of Sena MLAs who joined Eknath Shinde’s rebel camp. Amid a buzz that some Thane corporators from Sena may pledge their support to the Shinde camp, sources in the Sena cadre said that at least 45-50 former corporators are in touch with Shinde.
Addressing the former Sena corporators, Aaditya Thackeray said that defected MLAs “have no other option than to join BJP”.
“If they still want to remain ministers, they have to be with BJP. But if they want to be a Shiv Sainik with respect, they should come forward and rebuild Sena. They (rebels) should have the courage to oppose in Maharashtra and not go to Surat or Guwahati,” Thackeray said.
“Shiv Sena’s strength is not just in corporators but in common Sena workers. Strenght is not just in numbers. I feel bad that the rebellion came at a time when Uddhav Thackeray underwent surgery. We need people who have Shiv Sena in their hearts and blood. Those who are priceless and not ones who have price tags,” he added.
Parmeshwar Kadam, a former corporator from Ghatkopar, said that Uddhav Thackeray reiterated to former corporators what he had said to the MLAs. “Those who want to leave Sena can leave. We need Sainiks from the heart,” said Kadam.
Shraddha Jadhav, Sena corporator who attended the meeting, said the party chief’s words have emboldened them to contest the civic elections with full vigour and instilled confidence in them.
Despite the assurances and huddles, the cracks within Sena are visible even in the civic corridors, the long-held bastion of the party.
This could spell doom for the upcoming civic elections for the already disbanded Sena, said a former corporator, whose family member, a sitting Sena MLA from a prestigious ward, recently joined the Shinde camp.
“More than 40-50 corporators are in touch with Eknath Shinde and there is a high probability of them joining his camp to contest the civic elections. Shinde has a way of working and he gets work done. Even those who attended the meeting at Sena Bhavan are in contact with him. They will wait and watch and not disclose their plans but these Sena corporators are going to leave for sure,” the corporator said.
The former corporator who also plans to join the Shinde camp said, “Eknath Shinde was available and easily approachable for all elected representatives. He was always ready to give funds and most programmes were organised by him. He was always available for local-level representatives.”
“The main reason for joining his camp is that there should have been a personal touch with elected representatives which was lacking. But even in BMC, the Sena leaders were in touch with administration instead of their corporators,” the former corporator added.
One of the glaring issues in the BMC that cropped up in the last three to five years was when some corporators from Sena got ₹25-30 crore in funds from the budget despite having small-sized wards, irking other corporators.
Former Sena corporator from Prabhadevi Samadhan Sarvankar was not invited to the meeting at Sena Bhavan. Incidentally, his father, MLA Sada Sarvankar, joined the Shinde camp on Thursday.
Sarvankar said that he would have attended the meeting had he been invited. He said that the corporators were disgruntled because only a selected few chosen corporators were given ₹20-30 crore in funds while the others got ₹1-1.5 crore.
“Even vehicles were given to these top 10 corporators. Most of the corporators were also displeased because many assistant commissioners never paid heed to their grievances,” he said.
He pointed out that the AMCs used to approach senior Sena leaders complaining about protesting corporators. “This angered corporators as they felt disrespected. There even came a time when in the past they were even made to issue an apology to an assistant commissioner and the corporators from the ward were made to sign,” he said.
Suvarna Karanje, former Sena corporator from Kanjurmarg, who attended the meeting said, “Shiv Sena is synonymous with Thackeray. This betrayal makes no difference and is unethical. If the defected MLAs have the courage they should stand for elections again and not misuse the Shiv Sena banner.”
Pravina Morachkar, former Kurla corporator, stood with a placard outside Sena Bhavan which read: “Our soul is Balasaheb. Our breath is Uddhavsaheb. Our strength is Adityasaheb. In our blood is Shiv Sena.”
“All BMC Sena corporators are with Uddhavsaheb. We are in touch with people and they too strongly support him,” said former Sena corporator Anil Kokil from Lalbaug-Parel.
Senior BJP leader and MP Manoj Kotak, meanwhile, is confident that his party will sweep the civic polls this year. “Already Sena has lost the mandate of the people due to its misconduct in the last 30 years. Corruption, and not fulfilling commitments are the reasons Mumbaikars want Sena to be ousted. There is not much doubt left now that Sena will lose the civic elections this year. BJP had won 84 seats in the 2017 civic polls and is confident of winning 120 seats this time around. Whether it is the Covid situation or waterlogging, Sena has failed miserably. Earlier they had blamed the state government, this time they were in power themselves and had nobody to blame for their inefficiency,” said Kotak.
HT had reported on June 23 that Sena’s hold on BMC will be on shaky grounds in the upcoming civic polls as former Sena corporators were feeling increasingly insecure about their future.
After having reigned over BMC, Asia’s richest municipal corporation since 1989, retaining corporators is crucial for the Sena in the upcoming civic elections, especially in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli and Ulhasnagar. Navi Mumbai has long been a BJP bastion.
The 84 elected Sena corporators had increased to 97 in the BMC with BJP giving them stiff competition in the 2017 elections.
Currently, the BMC is being run by the administrator and municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal after the deliberative wing of the BMC became defunct and the term of the corporators ended on March 7.
The BMC elections are usually held in April-May but had to be postponed this year due to the Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation issue and are now expected to be held post-monsoon in September-October.