Mumbai: Ahead of civic body polls in Maharashtra, former corporators from the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Samajwadi Party are making an influx into the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, one of the parties in power in the state.
The former corporators are apparently making a bid to strengthen their position and bargain for as many seats as possible with the BJP, senior partner in the ruling Mahayuti, when the allies sit on the negotiating table for the polls speculated to be held later this year.
So far, 87 former corporators of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have joined the Shiv Sena, of which 50 are from the corporation’s 2017-2022 term while the rest were corporators during 2012-2017 and 2007-2012, according to Shiv Sena sources. Most corporators joining Shinde’s Sena are from the Shiv Sena (UBT), followed by the Congress, and then NCP (SP).
The last five-year term of the BMC ended in March 2022.
Shiv Sena sources said this was just the beginning. “More people are expected to come. This is just the beginning. We need to get everyone from the (Shiv Sena) UBT on board with us,” a party functionary told ThePrint.
Former corporators the ThePrint spoke to said they decided to join Shinde’s Shiv Sena because they want to get work done which has been stuck for the past few years.
“I had no issues as such with (Uddhav) Thackeray’s party. But since expiry of the corporation’s term, my work in the constituency has stopped. I couldn’t really work, and then I was approached by Shinde’s party members that I should join them. And I thought, for how long will I wait? That’s why I joined the party,” said a former BMC corporator who joined the Shiv Sena about 15 months ago.
After Shinde’s faction broke away from the Thackerays in 2022, many former corporators started defecting from the latter. And now, for the last one year, Shinde’s party has been on a spree to induct more and more former corporators.
Sheetal Mhatre, spokesperson of Shiv Sena, told ThePrint: “It has been nearly three years that the BMC work is not being done through corporators. And if the work has to be done, corporators have no option but to join us.”
Many of the former corporators who have joined the Shiv Sena are expecting to get a ticket when civic body elections are announced.
Another former corporator who joined Shinde’s Sena about six months ago said he moved parties because of the popularity of Shinde. “With the amount of infrastructure work that has been done under Shinde saheb, metro or road concretisation, I believe that only in the Shiv Sena can I develop my ward,” he told ThePrint.
Speaking to ThePrint, Anand Dubey, spokesperson of Shiv Sena (UBT), said the party has been hurt the most. “Maharashtra has seen struggle and it is in our DNA. Those who don’t want to struggle are going. And Shinde is trying to poach from us because the BJP and Shinde want to win elections by weakening us. But we will emerge stronger as people are with us.”
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‘For how long should we wait?’
According to Shiv Sena functionaries, the influx of former corporators has sped up in the last one year. Since the Maharashtra assembly elections last year, about five former corporators have joined the party, and more are expected to join as the municipal elections draw near.
The party expects the elections to be held sometime in September-October.
“Not only in Mumbai, there are many corporators from across the state who are joining us and will join in the future too,” said the Shiv Sena functionary mentioned earlier.
One recent induction into the party has been the firebrand corporator Rajul Patel, who was the women’s wing leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT) from Versova. She is known for her grassroots-level connect and is popular among women shiv sainiks. Many local leaders joined her in her defection.
Patel was hoping to get a ticket for the state polls from the Shiv Sena (UBT) from Versova, however, Haroon Khan got it instead. It was speculated that she would leave the party then, but she chose to wait and worked for the party in the assembly polls. However, after Khan’s victory, Patel was seen as sidelined. She finally left the Shiv Sena (UBT) last month.
While joining Shinde, she said she was upset with local-level politics in her ward.
Not just Patel, other big names from Mumbai that have joined Shinde’s Sena are Rutuja Tari from Mankhurd ward, Trushna Vishwasrao from Antop Hill, Datta Narvankar from Worli, and Mangesh Satamkar from Sion Koliwada.
A third former corporator also told ThePrint that he joined the Shiv Sena last year because work in his ward had been stuck for a long time.
“There was no money to get the work done and those who joined Shinde saheb, were able to get the work done. For how long should we wait?” he asked.
Mhatre, a corporator herself between 2017 and 2022, said: “See, for people we are still the corporators. People expect us to get work done like fixing the gutter or water issues or any other small and big things.”
“Also, one reason why people are leaving Thackeray is because everyone knows which is the real Shiv Sena. They don’t think that they are leaving the party, because we all have been colleagues and know each other. So it is like this is their natural home,” she added.
Shiv Sena (UBT) plans to hold a meeting with MPs on 20 February and with MLAs on 24 February in the backdrop of defections like those of former MLAs Rajan Salvi and Subhash Bane.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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