The tussle for the Mumbai mayor post has heated up with Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde staking claim on it for his party, and the Uddhav Thackeray faction alleging that the phones of the Mahayuti corporators are being “tapped”.
This comes days after the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secured a majority in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, held after a 4-year delay.
Shinde wants the mayor’s post given to his faction of the Shiv Sena as a “mark of respect” for the party’s founder, late Bal Thackeray, whose birth centenary falls next year. It is worth noting that the BJP won 89 seats in the 227-member BMC, the most of any party, though no single party has a clear majority.
What Eknath Shinde said on the Mumbai mayor post
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Monday hinted at Shiv Sena’s claim to the Mumbai mayor’s post, projecting it as a mark of respect to Bal Thackeray in his birth centenary year.
Shinde attributed the demand to a section of Sena workers, emphasising that Mumbai will have a Mahayuti mayor.
“Balasaheb Thackeray’s birth centenary year starts from January 23. Some Shivsainiks (party activists) have the feeling that a Shiv Sena mayor should be installed in the BMC,” Shinde was quoted by PTI as saying.
Similarly, he said that mayors of the Mahayuti alliance will be installed in those civic bodies where the Shiv Sena and BJP had contested the elections together.
Shinde stressed that the Shiv Sena would not take any decision that goes against the people’s mandate, emphasising that the Shiv Sena and BJP had fought the Mumbai civic elections as an alliance.
The phone tapping allegations
Amid a tussle over the Mumbai mayor’s post, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday claimed the phones of newly elected BJP and Shiv Sena members, who are “locked” in a luxury hotel, are being tapped by the ruling party.
However, the corporators of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have left the five-star hotel in Bandra where they had been staying following the announcement of the BMC results on January 16.
Raut said the BJP corporators are being kept under surveillance by the party’s workers.
Raut claimed the mayor of Mumbai is being decided by Delhi, which he said is an insult to Maharashtra, slamming the Shiv Sena headed by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.
“BJP workers are monitoring (movements) of every corporator of the party. The BJP is also tapping phones of its own corporators,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP was quoted by PTI as saying.
Even phones of Shiv Sena corporators “locked” in a luxury hotel are being tapped, he added.
Maharashtra BJP media in-charge Navnath Ban trashed Raut’s allegations.
“We don’t need phone tapping, but Raut should clarify who was tapping Eknath Shinde’s and Uday Samant’s phones when Maha Vikas Aghadi (led by Uddhav Thackeray) was in power. We have strong support from corporators, and are not engaged in such activities,” Ban said.
Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena corporators register themselves as a group
Prior to leaving the Bandra hotel, the 29 corporators of the Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena registered themselves as a group with the Konkan Divisional Commissioner, a mandatory procedure after the election.
During their hotel stay, the newly elected corporators received guidance from deputy chief minister Shinde on how they should work, PTI quoted a Shinde Sena functionary as saying.
Speculation, however, was rife that the Sena had isolated its corporators to prevent poaching, as no single party has a clear majority in the 227-member BMC.
In recent polls, the BJP-Sena alliance ended the nearly three-decade-long Thackeray family monopoly over the country’s richest civic body, meaning Mumbai won’t have a mayor chosen by Uddhav Thackeray.
The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance won a clear majority in the BMC elections, securing 89 and 29 seats, respectively.
The rival Shiv Sena (UBT) won 65seats, and its ally, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, bagged 6 seats in the high-stakes polls.