Mumbai: Wary Shiv Sena sticks to old-timers for civic polls

With little over a year to go for the civic elections, the ruling Shiv Sena is finding it difficult to rope in new and aggressive leaders to head various committees.

With little over a year to go for the civic elections, the ruling Shiv Sena is finding it difficult to rope in new and aggressive leaders to head various committees.

With Snehal Ambekar, a first time corporator-turned-mayor, already embroiled in a number of controversies, Sena does not seem to be open to experimenting with a new face, especially for the standing and BEST committees.

Senior party leaders are feeling the pinch of non-availability of efficient leaders in the civic body, with no new faces being introduced before election-year (early-2017). The nominations for chairpersons for BEST, standing, improvement and education committees were filed on Saturday.

The party has repeated its current chairmen, Yashodhar Phanse (Versova corporator), for the standing committee and Arvind Dudhvadkar (Tardeo corporator) for BEST. Its ally at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has gone on to nominate Ritu Tawde (Ghatkopar corporator) and Prakash Gangadhare (Mulund corporator) as the chairpersons of education and improvement committee, respectively.

A senior leader said, “This was the time to get aggressive faces so that better work could be done during elections. But the party authorities have taken no risks, especially after controversial experiences with the mayor. With no Sunil Prabhu and Rahul Shewale, the ruling party is finding it difficult to handle the BMC administration for almost a year.”

Trushna Vishwsrao, leader of House, said, “With a majority at standing committee, Phanse would surely be elected as the chairman.”