Six Congress ex-corporators from Mumbai defect to Shinde Sena | Mumbai News – Times of India

Mumbai: In a major setback for Congress, six former corporators joined the Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde on Saturday. One former MLA and a former corporator of Shiv Sena (UBT) also joined the Shinde Sena.
Of the six from Congress, four ex-corporators are from Dharavi, the constituency of MLA Varsha Gaikwad, the new chief of Mumbai Congress. Two of the six are also from the minority community, indicating that the Shinde Sena may go all-out to woo the Muslim community as well.
22 former city corporators now in CM Shinde’s camp
Besides six former corporators from Congress, Samajwadi Party excorporator Jyotsna Parmar also joined the Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde. The six defectors from Congress are Pushpa Koli (Sion), Wajit Qureshi (Chandivli), Bhaskar Shetty (Dharavi), Babbu Khan (Dharavi) and Kunal Mane and his wife Ganga Mane (Dharavi). The total number of former corporators to have joined the Shinde Sena since June last year is now 22 from across parties, whether it is the Sena (UBT), Congress or NCP. From the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena, former MLA Tukaram Kathe and former corporator Samruddhi Kathe joined the Shinde group on Saturday. While earlier this month, one former Congress corporator Supriya More had joined the Shinde group, this is the first time since the Shiv Sena split in June last year that ex-corporators from Congress have joined the Shinde camp in such significant numbers.
While the entry of ex-corporators from Dharavi has come as a setback for Gaikwad, it is a boost for Shiv Sena MP from Mumbai SouthCentral Rahul Shewale who is with CM Shinde. In June this year, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge appointed Gaikwad as president of the Mumbai Congress in place of Bhai Jagtap. A Dalit face of the Congress, Varsha Gaikwad is the first woman to lead the Mumbai Congress. She is the daughter of veteran Congress leader Eknath Gaikwad. A senior Congress functionary said, “This is a major setback for Varsha Gaikwad and is a clear indication that she has failed to hold the party organisation together. We have been complaining that many leaders have not been taken on board and even senior office-bearers including the working president and senior former corporators are not consulted.
The Congress in Mumbai can’t be run authoritatively as a oneperson show. We are told that many more former corporators are also going to jump ship. This will be irreparable damage for the Congress unless corrective measures are taken immediately.” Sena functionaries said that with CM Shinde likely to be at the helm and firmly housed in Varsha, the CM’s official residence, many grassroots-level workers apart from some MLAs and MPs are likely to soon jump ship ahead of the 2024 polls. CM Shinde may go on an overdrive especially to woo former corporators and shakha-level Sena workers even if more MLAs and MPs don’t join him, they said. With the CM now hands-on, the Sena (UBT) organization may face pressure, they added.