BJP ex-corporators protest at BMC headquarters against office sealing

Mumbai: Former BJP corporators held a sit-in protest outside their party office at the BMC headquarters on Monday and requested administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal to reopen it. All party offices at the civic headquarters were sealed last week after a face-off between party workers from both the Shiv Sena camps.

BJP’s ex-corporators said the office at the BMC building is a strong point of interface between the party and citizens. However, the scuffle on Dec 29 led to all offices being shut.

BJP’s former group leader Prabhakar Shinde, along with former corporators Vinod Mishra and Bhalchandra Shirsat, sat outside their sealed office on the ground floor on Monday afternoon. 

Mr Shinde said, “People come with their grievances to party offices. It is a convenient place for them to meet former corporators, who can help them sort out several issues. The fight was between two Shiv Sena factions. There was no need to seal all party offices.”

The corporators also met Mr Chahal with their demand, but sources said that since all party offices in other municipal corporations are also sealed, the BMC administration is not in favour of opening the party offices here. Mr Chahal did not comment on the issue. 

The term of elected corporators came to an end on March 7, 2022. Thereafter, the civic commissioner had been appointed as the administrator of the BMC. Mr Chahal had earlier allowed all parties to use their party offices at the civic headquarters.

Published on: Tuesday, January 03, 2023, 01:19 AM IST