Shiv Sena takes aim at ally over transparency, corruption

Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader and MLC Anil Parab has made allegations of corruption in the Nagpur Municipal Council (NMC), which is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.  The veiled attack comes after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed last week that the Sena-BJP alliance could not  take place in Brihanmumbai Municipal Council (BMC) elections because of the Sena’s lack of commitment to transparency.

Mr Parab, who is in charge of party affairs in Nagpur, even asked Mr Fadnavis to explain how he managed to prove his government’s majority on the floor of the Assembly immediately after the 2014 assembly elections. He said in a press conference, “People of the state are still unaware about deal cause the Fadnavis government to survive on the floor. No one knows which party supported BJP when the party didn’t have sufficient numbers. Those talking about transparency should make public this deal”.

The BJP is constantly raising the issue of transparency as its main plank for the BMC poll. For last two years, BJP leaders have also raised allegations about various scams in different BMC schemes and tenders. Mr Parab has claimed corruption exists in road contracts, water supplement, concrete roads and also threatened to reveal more in the coming days.

The BJP, however, has strongly rebutted all these charges. NMC mayor and BJP MLC Anil Sole said, “These are false charges. It is nothing but an attempt to push the BMC’s failure under the rug. Shiv Sena has been a partner in power. But while awarding the projects it never objected”.