Political scene hots up in Thane

Thane, Sep 29 (UNI) With the local elections to the Thane Municipal Corporation only a few months away, the political scene in the city is gradually hotting up.

A large number of party activists have already started crossing floors in different parts of the city, and both the Shiv Sena and the NCP are the main beneficiaries of these developments.

As if the crossing over of Bali Naibagkhar from the NCP to the Shiv Sena and getting elected to the same ward on a Sena ticket was not enough, last evening, three Congress corporators from the Mumbra division, resigned their primary membership of the party, and also the corporatorship, in protest against the manner in which the city district unit president was functioning.

The resignation of the trio is sure to have a telling effect on the chances of the Congress which is already facing stiff competition from the NCP and the Shiv Sena here.

The three corporators who sent in their resignations to the state chief, are Gurunath Patil, Chayya Patil and Sulochana Patil.

They said that ''they were fed up with the manner in which the city president Balkrishna Purnekar functioned.'' ''He never took me into confidence while taking decision despite the fact that I am the block president. Purnekar was making appointments to the wards even without the knowledge of the block president which is not not only humiliating but a blow to the party itself,'' Mr Gurunath Patil said.

''Even though we have deserted the party we will not not join any other political party as we are Congressmen first and last,'' he added.

He alleged that inspite of making several complaints regarding Purnekar, to Hussain Dalvai of the MPCC, who is in charge of Thane district, nothing seems to have been done. Hence our extreme decision to quit, and moreover we do not not want to be the cause of the debacle of the party at any stage, he clarified.

The resignations have created a stir, not only in the congress camp, but also in the entire political scene here.

UNI XR-WD SKB1510