Sena nominates Shewale for chairman’s post again

The Shiv Sena has nominated Rahul Shewale once again for the post of civic standing committee chairperson. Shewale is currently the chairperson of the standing committee.

The Shiv Sena has nominated Rahul Shewale once again for the post of civic standing committee chairperson. Shewale is currently the chairperson of the standing committee.

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The elections for the posts of chairman of the standing and education committees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be held on April 6.

There was suspense in the Sena over who party executive president Uddhav Thackeray would nominate.

The names being considered were party legislator and corporator Ravindra Waikar, senior corporator Prabhakar Shinde and Shewale.

The nomination is significant because the post is crucial for implementing the Sena’s agenda in the run-up to the civic elections to be held early next year. The Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance rules the BMC.

The standing committee has powers to sanction funds for various civic works in the city. It has 27 members elected from among the corporators.

These members then elect the chairperson. Currently, the ruling Sena-BJP and their allies have a strength of 14 while the Congress-led Opposition has 11 members in the standing committee. Shewale's election is a foregone conclusion.

Meanwhile, the BJP nominated former deputy mayor, Vinod Ghedia, for the post of chairman of education committee.

Though the Sena was keen on their man for this post as well, its alliance partner did not allow this.

Both Shewale and Ghedia filed their nominations on Saturday. From the Opposition, Niaz Ahmed Vanu (Nationalist Congress Party) and Avtarsingh Sokhi (Congress) will contest the elections for the posts of standing and education committees respectively.