BMC ward committee elections: Mumbai mayor joins protest after rift with civic chief; Chahal apologises

City mayor and Shiv Sena corporator Kishori Pednekar along with other party corporators took part in a protest at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters

City mayor and Shiv Sena corporator Kishori Pednekar along with other party corporators took part in a protest at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters on Wednesday, after a war of words broke out between Pednekar and the civic administration, including municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal. The argument took place ahead of the commencement of the elections for ward committees owing to concerned officials not being present during the start of the elections. However, Chahal later apologised.

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According to Pednekar and Shiv Sena corporators, only one BMC staff was present at 10am, when elections were scheduled to begin. While the remaining officials, including the assistant municipal commissioner and deputy municipal commissioner, were not present at that time.

Owing to this, Sena corporators tried calling the concerned officials but did not receive an answer. Later, when Sena corporator Vishakha Raut called Chahal, an argument took place between the two.

Pednekar and other Sena corporators sat on dharna at the BMC headquarters in Fort, alleging rude behaviour by Chahal and the BMC administration. Sena is the ruling party in the BMC and is also the single largest party.

“Every year ward officers are present during the ward committee elections, but this time it didn’t happen. Hence, we protested. Later, the BMC commissioner and our group leader Vishakha Raut argued. However, the matter is closed now after the commissioner apologised to our group leader,” said Pednekar.

Chahal said he would not like to comment on the same. Further, along with 17 types of committees in the BMC, there are ward committees where micro-decisions regarding 24 administrative wards are undertaken. The chairman of the ward committee is elected from among the corporators of the 24 wards.

After Wednesday’s incident, both, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the BMC ruling party holding a protest reflects badly and shows Sena in poor light.

Ravi Raja, Congress corporator and leader of opposition, said, “Someone like the mayor, who has to sit on dharna against the administration, shows that there is no control of the administration by the ruling party. It definitely does not give out a good message.”

Prabhakar Shinde, BJP corporator and group leader of the BJP in BMC, said, “Any type of insult to the mayor is an insult of citizens, and we condemn it. But what picture we got to see today is that the Shiv Sena, which is ruling in the BMC, has become weak and does not have any control over the administration. We have got information that the municipal secretary department did not inform the concerned officials to be present for the elections, and this should be investigated.”

Despite repeated attempts by HT, municipal secretary Sangeeta Sharma, whose department looks after the ward committee elections, was unavailable for comment.

The Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) voted for the Sena’s candidates for electing ward committee chairman in A, B and E wards, which cover areas like Colaba, Churchgate, Byculla and Mazagaon. The two parties said they voted for the Sena candidate to keep the BJP at bay.