BMC standing committee orders inquiry

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has been facing the ire of electoral candidates who had to bite the dust in the recent civic polls. In a fresh attack on Tuesday, Shiv Sena leader Trushna Vishwasrao reiterated her party’s allegations that Marathi names were deleted from the voters’ list, which resulted in many registered citizens being unable to exercise their franchise.

These allegations were hurled at the second-last standing committee meeting of the BMC before the new house is constituted after March 8.

“Most of the 11 lakh names that were deleted from the list were those of Maharashtrians. These votes would have benefitted us. There should be an inquiry in this,” said Vishwasrao.

A senior leader, Vishwasrao lost to Congress’ Sufiyan Vanu from ward number 179 in Wadala.

On Tuesday, current opposition leader Pravin Chheda also alleged that the BJP candidate in his ward had been favoured, as BMC had ordered four road works in Ghatkopar during the code of conduct.

“There were no tenders, the works were ordered directly by the civic chief himself all of a sudden, when the code of conduct was still in place,” Chheda alleged, demanding an inquiry. He lost to first-timer Parag Shah from the BJP in Ghatkopar’s ward number 132.

Standing committee chairman Yashodhar Phanse supported the demand for both inquiries and asked the administration to table a report in the next meeting.

Phanse said that many Maharashtrian voters from his ward could not vote because of the errors.

A senior Sena leader who had been a favourite for the post of the Mayor, Phanse also lost from ward number 60 in Andheri.

BJP corporator Dilip Patel said had all the voters got a chance to cast their votes, then the BJP would have won more seats.

During the February 21 election, many could not find their names on the voter list. The Sena has also started a toll-free number for people to register complaints.

Civic officials, however, said that the complainants should have checked their names when BMC initiated the drive in 2015.

A senior civic official said, “We had asked citizens to check their names through different mediums even if they had voted in the 2014 Assembly election. People waking up on voting day is useless.”