The Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), fearing rebellion, secretly dispatched official party forms to the candidates late on Wednesday night. This comes a week after both parties claimed that they have the people’s support for the battle of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. February 3 is the last day for filing nominations.
But, there is a wave of discontent among Sena workers over selection of candidates. Two sitting and one former corporator from the Sena on Thursday joined the BJP claiming they are being sidelined at the behest of seniors. “We have been working as Sena activists, but relatives of senior leaders are being given a preference,” said Sena’s Dinesh Panchal, a corporator from Anushakti Nagar, who joined the BJP. Sena MP Rahul Shewale’s wife Kamini is being given the party ticket from ward number 144, to which he had opposed.
Similarly, the former BEST chairman and present corporator from Parel, Nana Ambole, joined the BJP along with the former Sena corporator from Mulund, Prabhakar Shinde. Both alleged that the party leadership decided to distribute tickets to unworthy candidates.
At Wadala, Sena activists locked the local office protesting the announcement of ticket to Ameya Ghole from ward number 178.
Mr. Ghole is a close aide of Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray. Delimitation too is causing trouble for the party as sitting corporators had to be shifted to neighbouring wards. Kishori Pednekar’s candidature from ward number 199 has not gone down well with local party cadre, as local leader Rajesh Kusale’s wife Rupali was hoping for the ticket.
Voices of disagreement are growing within the BJP as well. On Thursday morning, a few names from the party’s possible list of candidates were made public by insiders. The names included those who have recently joined the party from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Congress and the Sena. It also featured names of close relatives of party MLAs. However, there was no official confirmation from the city unit of the BJP on the leaked names.
