In a major setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which single handedly governs the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), the state government authorities stayed the appointment of four co-opted members who were nominated in the general body meeting held on Monday. Three out of the four contenders are from the BJP. As per the orders issued by the Urban Development Department (UDD), the formation of various committees was also put on hold till further directions.
The action followed in response to the complaints filed by Shiv Sena legislator Geeta Jain demanding the scrapping of both the resolutions (number 31 and 35) in accordance with section 451 (1) of Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949. While resolutions mooting names of the BJP candidates Anil Bhosale, Bhagwati Sharma, Ajit Patil and SA Khan (Congress) had cleared the decks in the general body meeting held via video conferencing on Monday, the candidature of Shiv Sena’s Vikram Pratap Singh hit the roadblock due to alleged charges of conflict of interest.
Various civic committees are also formed according to the strength commanded by each party in the general body house. Jain, who is also a corporator from ward number six in the MBMC, vehemently opposed the unjustified decision taken by the BJP on the virtue of their majority in the house. “Despite opposition, the resolutions were passed, following which I sought the intervention of the state government authorities,” said Jain.
Interestingly, Jain who got elected as municipal corporator on a BJP ticket in 2017, went on to contest and win the assembly elections as an independent by defeating her arch BJP rival and sitting legislator Narendra Mehta in the 2019 polls. Jain recently entered the Shiv Sena, but ironically her name continues to fare in the list of BJP corporators as per municipal records, sources said. After the new body came into existence in 2017, it took more than three years for the MBMC to complete the process of nominating members.
