MUMBAI: With several former Congress corporators upset over the change in reservation of their ward, former Congress MP Milind Deora said that the Congress was the biggest casualty of the BMC’s new ward reservations despite being a partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Deora said that he would take up the issue with the party leadership.
“The greatest casualty of BMC’s ward reservation has been Congress, despite being an MVA a lly. Political alliances cannot be one-sided. I will raise this issue on behalf of our municipal councillors with the party’s leadership,” Deora tweeted, tagging Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra.
Deora’s comments come at a time when the Congress is now sharing an uneasy relationship with the Shiv Sena, which ruled the BMC. While the Congress is a partner in the MVA government, it was the principal opposition party in the BMC. Political analysts said that while there may be an understanding between the Congress and Shiv Sena fo r the BMC polls, any formal alliance is unlikely to work out.
“The Congress has found itself in a corner now. An MVA alliance for the BMC polls seems unlikely and with these ward reservations the party may struggle to even get decent numbers. The Sena seems to have worked to edge us out totally.
This balancing act of being in power in the state and opposition in the BMC seems to hav e hurt us. Unless we get at least 30 seats, we will become irrelevant in Mumbai,” a former Congress corporator said.
On Saturday, several former Congress corporators met and claimed that the new ward reservations were unfair. “Today Congress corporators met at MRCC office to discuss ward reservation set for BMC elections. All corporators are quite upset with this arrangement and feel injustice has been done to them.
They hope the party high command will look into it and solve the issue,” former Congress Corporator Ravi Raja, who w as the opposition leader in the BMC, said in a tweet. Raja said that out of the Congress’s 29 corporators, reservations for 21 wards were changed. Raja’s own ward no 182 in Sion has been reserved for women and Raja will now have to hunt for a new ward to fight the polls.
“The Congress has always opposed the arbitrary conduct of the municipal commissioner. The arbitrariness of the commissioner has not stopped even after his appointment as administrator. They are secretly making many important decisions. We opposed several proposals which were approved by the commissioner. So he has taken revenge. We will soon decide on challenging this lottery system in court,” Raja said.
