Mira Bhayandar: 4, including 3 ex-Sena corporators in MBMC join BJP

The election program for the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Elections (MBMC) is yet to be announced by the state election commission (SEC) but the season of 'Aayaram- Gayaram' (proverbial term for party hoppers and political turncoats) has already taken off in the political circles of the twin-city.

On Friday, four former municipal corporators, including Dipti Bhatt, Anita Patil and Kusum Gupta (from the Shiv Sena) and Naresh Patil (from Congress) joined the BJP in the presence of state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule and former legislator Narendra Mehta at the party headquarters in Mumbai.

However, their induction is alleged to be just an action replay to impress the higher-ups by a faction of the local BJP leadership as Dipti Bhatt, Anita Patil, and Naresh Patil had raised a banner of revolt against their original parties by pledging their loyalties to the BJP and jumping into their bandwagon more than two years back.

While the sudden hopping of Kusum Gupta into the BJP is being seen as a major setback to the Shinde-led Sena, the other three political turncoats had been taking the utmost care to ensure that they do not invite disqualification by invoking the stringent provisions under the Anti-Defection Law.

Elected representatives are mandated to remain, members of the party, they were elected on. If they decide to leave or join another party, they have to resign and seek re-election (except in case of a merger of the party). If it is established that the members have voluntarily left the party to join another, the obvious constitutional implication would be that proceedings could be started for their disqualification from membership. However, the five-year tenure of the MBMC ended on August 27, and elections are expected to be held either by 2022 end or early 2023. The trend of defections is likely to intensify in the coming days.