The Shiv Sena on Thursday alleged that the nine-day strike by employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking was scripted and union leader Shashank Rao was only the puppet in the script, which was to malign the Sena.
Sena MLC Anil Parab alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Mumbai president Ashish Shelar, former CM and Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Rane, and MLC Kapil Patil are the leaders whom Mr. Rao and others thanked saying they were the invisible hands behind the strike.
The Sena has been facing criticism for failing to meet the workers’ expectations and withdrawing from the strike, despite heading the civic body. “The invisible hands working behind the strike wanted to score political points over the Sena. That was the political agenda behind the strike,” he claimed.
“The Sena is always with the BEST employees and in every crisis, the party stands by the workers. In the recent strike, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with Mayor Vishvnath Mahadeshwar, civic body chief Ajoy Mehta, and BEST general manager Surendra Bagade at Mayor Bungalow, where he placed a proposal of increment for all the employees. But Mr. Rao refused the proposal saying he needed time to consider it,” Mr. Parab said.
Mr. Parab also claimed that even after nine days of strike, the BEST workers will not get what their leaders have been claiming. “Mr. Rao announced that the workers will get a hike of ₹7,000 to ₹8,000. In reality, they will get only up to an increase of ₹4,800 per month,” he said.
“It is a clear cheating of the BEST workers and the workers will come to know in future how they are cheated by Mr. Rao,” the Sena leader said.
