Unlock all party offices, Sena (UBT) leaders tell BMC chief

Sena (UBT) MP Vinayak Raut and former leader of the house Vishaka Raut met Chahal, demanding that he withdraw his decision and unlock all party offices. Former Sena (UBT) corporators swarmed the space outside his office, as slogans of ‘awaaz konacha, Shiv Senecha’ filled the air

Mumbai:

Mumbai, India - Dec. 29, 2022: Former corporators belonging to Shiv Sena UBT group stage a dharna outside BMC commissioner I S Chahal office, after he sealed all party offices in BMC head quarter in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, December 29, 2022. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

A day after the two Sena factions – Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) and Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena (BSS) -- sparred over office space at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which prompted the municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, to seal all party offices, members of the Thackeray faction descended at the civic headquarters on Thursday, protesting Chahal’s move.

Sena (UBT) MP Vinayak Raut and former leader of the house Vishaka Raut met Chahal, demanding that he withdraw his decision and unlock all party offices. Former Sena (UBT) corporators swarmed the space outside his office, as slogans of ‘awaaz konacha, Shiv Senecha’ filled the air.

In his letter to the commissioner, Raut detailed how party offices were crucial since former corporators use the space to review and discuss ongoing civic projects. “They need to meet office bearers, including the commissioner. We don’t come here for personal work,” Raut told HT. “Every office has a typist who drafts letters for the municipal commissioner. We continue to monitor ongoing projects in respective wards, even though we have ceased to be corporators. If the common man has the privilege to enter the offices, why are we being denied the same?”

With reference to Wednesday’s episode, Raut questioned the legal right of the breakaway faction to step into the old party office. “Nobody has approved of them as a separate group. There is no legal sanctity that they are the real Shiv Sena, unless the court declares it henceforth.”

Sheetal Mhatre, former Dahisar corporator and spokesperson for BSS, however, insisted that they are the original Shiv Sena, and that the office was not the other faction’s private space. “We went to the office yesterday, which belongs to us. There are no sitting corporators. We spoke to all of them and did not object to their presence. If they are holding up the book of law for us, then the same applies to them. The offices were shut down because of them. They suffer from ‘chemical locha’,” said Mhatre.

Raut called attention to the fact that despite ruling for 25 years, members of Sena (UBT) had to sit on the floor to protest, adding that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were “working in a way that the faction is at a loss”, while Shinde’s party workers were there to “meet Chahal for the welfare of citizens”. “This is the difference between the two Senas.”

Mhatre rebutted: “Just like the way Uddhav Thackeray sat in the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party’s offices in the Nagpur assembly, his party men should do likewise.”

Meanwhile, other political parties that are bearing the brunt of Wednesday’s fiasco, have also marked their protest. As former leader of opposition from Congress, in BMC, Ravi Raja, said, “Locking up offices will affect Mumbaikars because former corporators are representatives of the people – this is where they meet and discuss issues. Why are we being made to suffer? This was a deliberate move to ensure that nobody comes to the party office. There will be no accountability and transparency again.”

Rais Shaikh, MLA and former corporator from Samajwadi Party, called it “autocracy”. “Party offices are a space where normal citizens’ problems get registered. This last forum has also been closed.”