Old guns of Shiv Sena to lead from the front in BMC

BEST Chairman Ashish Chemburkar elected on Friday

After facing criticism for bringing back the old guns of the party to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after years and not giving them strong portfolios, the Shiv Sena has started recognising them with the hope of reviving the party's image in the civic body. In view of the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Sena is looking at countering the BJP by pitching the veterans against their former ally.

Recently, a lot of negativity had developed within the party with Ashish Chemburkar and Mangesh Satamkar being asked to step down as members in the standing committee. But now the duo has been recognised as chairmen of two statutory committees of the civic body. While Chemburkar has become the chairman of the BEST committee, Satamkar will be heading the education committee of BMC.

Former Mayor, Vishakha Raut, who was brought back to the corporation to fight former corporator Sandeep Deshpande's wife Sapana Deshpande in Shivaji Park area, will now be Sena's group leader in BMC. While the performance of the existing chairman of the standing committee was questioned, Sena has pitched its group leader Yashwant Jadhav to take the financial decisions.

Further, Sena is also trying to ensure that the MNS corporators, who joined the party, stay with them to take on the BJP. Hence, it has given Dilip Lande the chairmanship of the improvement committee. Speaking to mid-day, a senior Sena leader said, "They were brought back to the corporation to ensure that new leaders receive good guidance. But now we feel it's important for them to lead from the front and hence the decisions have been taken."

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