Former BJP corporator is now a Sena candidate
Stung by the betrayal of the higher-ups in his own party, senior BJP leader and four times corporator Sharad Patil joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of legislator Pratap Sarnaik on Saturday evening.
Patil became a victim of goof-up in distribution of tickets and deliberate issuance of multiple AB forms (mentioning the official party candidate) by the BJP leadership. Patil was asked to file his nominations in panel number 18. He was left fuming after learning that the party had already given the AB form to another nominees as well. This left him tagged them as an independent candidate if he wished to contest the polls.
However Sena leaders came to his rescue and formally extended their support by making sure that the official Sena nominee from panel number 18 withdraws his nomination papers paving way for Patil a the Sena-supported candidate.
“It’s nothing but a calculated conspiracy by the BJP leadership which does not want old time party loyalaists. First they shifted me from my traditional ward then they played this dirty trick to ensure my withdrawal from the race,” alleged Patil. Form ‘A’ is the declaration of members empowered by the registered political party to nominate the candidates and ‘B’ the letter of nomination.
Corporators return, reimburse tabs
Not in a position to afford the risk of being deprived of the “No Dues” certificate, a much needed document which had to be submitted to contest the civic polls scheduled on August 20, as many as 90 corporators have returned the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) gifted tabs, while 9 of them chose to reimburse its cost price.
With an objective of providing corporators online access to meeting agendas and reduce stationery cost as well as paper work, the civic administration had spent more than Rs 24 lakh to distribute high-end Samsung-Galaxy Tabs to 99 elected representatives and co-opted members, a year after the polls in 2012.
In response to the civic chief ’Dr. Naresh Gite’s warning that beneficiaries will not be allowed to contest elections unless they did not return the laptops, the corporators started making a beeline for returning the electronic gadget to the civic administration. However, corporators who were unable to return the laptops have paid Rs 24,000.
Cong candidate wins unopposed
More than two weeks before the first vote is cast for the MBMC polls, the Congress opened its account on Thursday itself after one of their candidates, Uma Sapar, from panel number 22 in Mira Road was elected unopposed. This thanks to an error by her lone rival Shiv Sena’s Daksha Gupta who failed to submit the receipt of her caste validation on time.
The candidature was rejected during scrutiny process paving way for Sapar's unopposed victory, as apart from the Congress and Shiv Sena no other candidates had filed nominations from ward number 22 (a).