Mumbai: The first citizen of Mumbai found himself in the news yet again, this time for an angry exchange and for grabbing a woman's arm, while on a condolence visit.
A video of Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar angrily pulling the hand of a woman went viral on social media on Tuesday.
On Monday, the mayor had visited Patel Nagar in Santacruz, where a mother and son were electrocuted to death on Sunday and irate locals had blocked the Western Express Highway in protest.
Mahadeshwar met the family of the deceased to offer his condolences and found himself surrounded by irate residents.
The video shows Mahadeshwar surrounded by locals who have questions for him, the main one being why he did not come rushing to the spot on the day of incident. He replies that he did go to the hospital that night.
However, a woman insists Mahadeshwar was not there at the hospital. The mayor countered that with, 'Tumhala kai maahit aahe? (What do you know?)".
In answer, the woman repeats his question. Unfazed, the mayor retorts, "Maajhi akkhi Mumbai aahe. (All of Mumbai is mine)". Visibly irked by this face-off, he suddenly grabs the arm of the woman nearest to him in the crowd and tells her,
"Ae, dadagiri karu nako, tu olkhat naahis mala, maazhaashi dadagiri kartes ka (Hey, don't bully me, don't you know who I am, are you bullying me?)" Then, realising the situation was out of hand, he leaves the spot.
On July 1, Mahadeshwar had declared there was no waterlogging in the city, as he had been walking through the city all day long and had not seen any evidence of this.
“I have been making my way through the city since morning… did not see water-logging anywhere. Low-lying areas or those near subways might be inundated but there has been no traffic congestion.
Mumbaikars are at work and children have been going to school,” he said. The city had recorded 375.2mm rain in the 24-hour period beginning July 1.
On June 15, the mayor had allegedly slapped an engineer from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, after there was waterlogging outside Matoshree, the residence of the Sena chief.
Meanwhile, the opposition has condemned the mayor's behaviour. The city chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Nawab Malik asked, “Is he the first citizen or a criminal? His behaviour is not acceptable, he should apologise to the woman or the Shiv Sena should sack him.
Earlier too, he was in the news for manhandling an engineer from the BMC.” Congress corporator Ravi Raja said, “The behaviour of the mayor is atrocious. As the first citizen, he should be calm and patient. He cannot behave in such a way.”
