The race for the Mumbai mayor's position has intensified. While Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is claiming this position for his party, the Uddhav Thackeray faction is alleging that the phones of their Mahayuti corporators have been "tapped".
The elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were conducted almost four years after the deadline in which the Mahayuti alliance, led by the BJP, won with an overwhelming majority.
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Eknath Shinde's stand
Shinde says that as a mark of honour for the party's founder, the late Bal Thackeray, and in celebration of his birth centenary this year, that the mayoral position should go to one of Shinde's factions of Shiv Sena. Notably, the BJP won a majority of seats, 89 out of 227 in the BMC, but no single party has been able to form a majority faction.
"Balasaheb Thackeray's birth centenary year starts from January 23. Some Shivsainiks (party activists) have the feeling that a Shiv Sena mayor should be installed in the BMC," Shinde was quoted by PTI as saying.
He said that mayors from the Mahayuti alliance will be placed in those civic bodies where the Shiv Sena and BJP ran in the elections together. Shinde stressed that the Shiv Sena would not make any decision that contradicts the people's choice, stressing that the Shiv Sena and BJP had campaigned in the Mumbai civic elections as a team.
Sanjay Raut's claims
Amid a spat over the mayor's office in Mumbai, on Tuesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed that phones belonging to newly-elected BJP and Shiv Sena members, whom he referred to as "locked" at a five-star hotel, are being tapped by the ruling BJP party.
However, the corporators from Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena vacated the five-star hotel in Bandra where they were staying since announcement of the BMC results on January 16.
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Raut further alleged that the BJP corporators have been placed under the watch of party workers monitoring their calls. Citing disrespect of Maharashta, Raut expressed discontent by saying that the Mumbai mayor is being decided by New Delhi and criticised the Shiv Sena ruled by deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde over these issues.
"BJP workers are monitoring (movements) of every corporator of the party. The BJP is also tapping phones of its own corporators," the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP was quoted by PTI as saying.
However, Maharashta BJP media in-charge Navnath Ban dismissed the allegations made by Raut.
"We don't need phone tapping, but Raut should clarify who was tapping Eknath Shinde's and Uday Samant's phones when Maha Vikas Aghadi (led by Uddhav Thackeray) was in power. We have strong support from corporators and are not engaged in such activities," Ban was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
