Senior Sena corporator may quit for Raj’s party

As the civic polls draw nearer, and with fewer open wards this time, the political scenario is heating up and an increasing number of corporators are expressing dissatisfaction with their parties, and threatening to move to rival groups.

As the civic polls draw nearer, and with fewer open wards this time, the political scenario is heating up and an increasing number of corporators are expressing dissatisfaction with their parties, and threatening to move to rival groups.

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Shortly after the Bharatiya Janata Party lost senior corporator Pravin Chheda to the Congress, its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena, runs of the risk of losing senior corporator Mangesh Satamkar.

Three-time corporator and former chairman of the civic education committee, Satamkar is a key Sena member in the civic body. He is the sitting corporator from Prateeksha Nagar, but the ward is reserved for women candidates in the upcoming civic polls. Satamkar has reportedly been eyeing adjoining ward number 169, Antop Hill represented by party colleague Mayor Shraddha Jadhav, which neither Jadhav, nor the Sena leadership, is keen to give to him.

“I am disappointed and will decide my plan of action on Monday,” Satamkar said on Wednesday.

However, sources close to him said that the Sena corporator is ready to quit and will join the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), if the Raj Thackeray-led party agrees to field him from ward number 169. If not, he is also considering contesting as an independent.

In either case, Satamkar’s exit from the party will jolt the Sena, as it will lose a senior corporator and create uncertainty about Jadhav’s reelection from ward 169.

The party chose to downplay the development. “No one is upset in our party. We will look into the matter,” said Sena leader Subhash Desai.