Raj’s men Foil bid to reinstate corporator

The proposal to reinstate suspended corporator Sunil Joshi into the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on June 18 was stymied a third time, by the presence of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s observers, which impelled MNS corporators to oppose the bid.

The proposal to reinstate suspended corporator Sunil Joshi into the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on June 18 was stymied a third time, by the presence of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s observers, which impelled MNS corporators to oppose the bid.

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This broke up a unanimous pact between all corporators to not oppose the proposal.

Sunil Joshi, assistant director of town planning, KDMC, was arrested on graft charges in February 2010 and released on bail a month later with all cases pending in court.

Joshi was suspended and the KDMC had three months earlier passed a proposal to not reinstate him until he was exonerated of all charges.

On June 18, Mohan Ugale and Mallesh Shetty, two independent corporators (supporters of Shiv Sena) proposed to reinstate Joshi. The proposal was hurried through and drew flak from dissenting voices.

However, a source said that it was observers sent by the MNS chief to monitor the stand of his party corporators who unnerved the opposition leader from the MNS Vaishali Darekar and other MNS corporators, leading them to break the unanimous pact to not oppose the proposal.

NCP group later Sachin Pote also followed suit and opposed the reinstatement, the source said.