Shiv Sena’s Ramesh Korgaonkar to head civic standing committee

Mumbai: The uncertainty of politics once again caught the spectators by surprise after the Shiv Sena nominated senior corporator Ramesh Korgaonkar to head the civic standing committee in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), overlooking the strong claims of Mangesh Satamkar. In fact the latter’s name was dropped at the last moment to make way for Mr Korgaonkar, who will be elected unopposed as the main opposition party Congress decided not to field any candidate.

The veteran corporator from Bhandup on Friday filed the nomination for the post of chairman of standing committee, which is considered the most important civic panel as it bears the authority of approving monetary proposals. The standing committee meeting will be held on March 14. Sena nominated another senior corporator Shubhada Gudekar, for the post of education committee chief. Here too, the party leadership ditched Sheetal Mhatre at the eleventh hour.

According to party sources, Mr Satamkar and Ms Mhatre for the posts of standing and education committee chairpersons respectively, were already finalised. Both had reached the BMC to file nominations for the posts. However, last moment directives from Matoshree resulted in their names being dropped.

Disgruntled with this, Mr Satamkar stormed out of the BMC headquarters. It is not the first time his claims were overlooked by the party high command. Almost seven years ago, Mr Satamkar was forced to withdraw at the last moment and instead Rahul Shewale was given the post of standing committee chairman. “Though I am not discontent over the missed opportunity, I certainly felt bad,” said Mr Satamkar.

Mr Korgaonkar was proved lucky this time as back in the 2014 state assembly polls, he was left disappointed after failing to get party ticket from Bhandup constituency. He was also in contention for the post of mayor, but Vishwanath Madadeshwar was appointed.