Three runners-up from the 2017 BMC elections are set to become corporators, this comes after the Supreme Court approved the disqualification of three sitting corporators. The top court dismissed the three sitting corporators after they failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their caste.
According to Indian Express, Supreme Court last month dismissed the petitions of Murji Patel and his wife Kesharben Patel, both BJP corporators from Jogeshwari (East) and Congress corporator Rajpat Yadav from Kandivali (East) challenging the Bombay High Court’s verdict upholding the Caste Scrutiny Committee (CSC)’s order disqualifying them for not providing “sufficient evidence” to prove their caste. The three sitting corporators had claimed in their election affidavit that they were from Other Backward Classes (OBC).
These three coporators will be replaced by, Murji Patel will be replaced by Congress candidate Nitin Salagre, Shiv Sena’s Sandeep Naik will replace Kehsarben Patel and Sena’s Eknath Hundare will replace Rajpati Yadav. These candidates have already submitted their documents to the Small Causes court to stake their claim as corporators.
“Applications of all three new corporators have been moved to the Small Causes court (this court has the power to nominate or disqualify corporators). The court order will then be sent to the BMC’s general body meeting, where the Mayor will formally declare their names as corporators. The whole process will take at least six months,” a senior official from the municipal secretary department told the Indian Express.
“I’m happy that finally, justice has prevailed. Not only the caste certificate, all of Murji Patel’s documents were fake. He forged birth certificate and other documents. There should be strict action against him. After the BMC election results were declared, we had filed a complaint with the Caste Scrutiny Committee. Now, once the Small Causes court verifies our claims we will be declared as corporators,” Salagre told the Indian Express. In the 227-seat BMC, the Shiv Sena currently has 91 seats which will now be increased to 93, the BJP’s strength will reduce by two to 83 and Congress tally will remain unchanged at 30.
