All in the family this BMC election

Mumbai: Dynasty politics is likely to rule the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) again. All the political parties, including the Shiv Sena and the BJP, have resorted to the tried-and-trusted formula of offering tickets to party leaders’ relatives.

According to political sources, with all parties contesting separately, none is willing to lose the golden chance of ruling the richest municipal corporation in the country. Hence, apart from nominating those who have come from other parties, these parties have decided to field their party leaders’ kin. Top BJP leaders Kirit Somaiya and Raj Purohit have sought tickets for their son Neil and Akash respectively, from Mulund and Colaba. However, Mr Purohit while denying demanding the ticket said, “Akash got the ticket on his own merit and the work he did for the party. I had not asked for a ticket for him.”

Meanwhile in Andheri, Yograj Dabhalkar, a nephew of MLA Bharati Lavekar, will be receiving a ticket to contest from ward 60, whereas MLA Ameet Satam has succeeded in nominating his brother-in-law Rohan Rathod from ward 68, sources said. Deepak Thakur, son of BJP minister Vidya Thakur will be contesting on the BJP ticket from ward number 50 in Goregaon. The BJP has also decided to give tickets to Makarand Narvekar, a citizen corporator who recently joined the party, and his wife Harshada from ward 226 and 227 respectively.

As far as Shiv Sena is concerned, the party has decided to field Kamini Shewale, wife of MP Rahul Shewale, from Govandi. The move has irked the local corporator Dinesh Panchal, who had sought a ticket for his own wife Anita. As a result, Mr Panchal and his wife joined the BJP on Thursday. The party has also finalised the names of Samadhan Sarvankar, son of MLA Sada Sarvankar, from Mahim, Tejaswini Ghosalkar, daughter-in-law of former MLA Vinod Ghosalkar from Dahisar, Preeti Patankar, wife of former corporator Prakash Patankar from Dadar as candidates.

In Congress, the ticket for Nitesh Singh, son of former MLA Rajhans Singh, has been finalised from Dindoshi. The shortage of strong and competent candidates is forcing political parties to field relatives of political leaders in elections, said political observers. An analyst also said that instead of going for unknown faces, it is always better to field wives of elected male politicians, they said.