Mumbai: Two senior Shiv Sena leaders resign from BMC standing committee

The Shiv Sena seems to be giving senior leaders the back seat and promoting new leaders. Two senior Sena leaders, who were brought back to the party to contest civic polls just last year, Mangesh Satamkar and Ashish Chemburkar, resigned from the membership of the standing committee of the BMC yesterday after a message from Matoshree - party chief Uddhav Thackeray's residence at Bandra.

Ashish Chemburkar. Pics/Twitter

Corporators Satamkar and Chemburkar, both also vibhag pramukhs, were seen as the biggest contenders for the position of standing committee chairman. But in a surprising move, the Sena chief has given a corporator from Bhandup, Ramesh Korgaonkar, the responsibility. Sources claim this is to please group leader Yashwant Jadhav.

Toe the line
Since then, the rumour mills have been working hard, that all is not well between the party leaders. Some Sena corporators also suspect that because these leaders demanded a position in the BMC, they were asked to take what they get or to leave. Sources in the civic body have also claimed that group leader Jadhav is calling the shots in the BMC, and he doesn't like anyone opposing him.

"While these two leaders were used to working in coordination with the party leadership within BMC, earlier the scenario was different. But with Jadhav bossing around, the discontent grew, and then a decision from Matoshree that pleased the corporators holding fort at BMC came. It was probably taken in the hope that party differences don't come out in the open before the elections," said a senior Sena leader. The two leaders were said to be the biggest threat to Jadhav's position in the civic body.

'A routine process'
The Sena spokesperson said, "This is a routine process." Satamkar said, "We don't question our leaders at Matoshree. We just follow their orders. Once we were instructed to resign, we immediately gave our letters to the municipal secretary."

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