MUMBAI: A day after Congress leader and former corporator Ravi Raja, who was opposition leader in the BMC, said that reservation for 21 of the Congress’s 29 corporator seats had been changed, former Congress MP Milind Deora said the party must not play “third fiddle” and was facing the risk of becoming irrelevant in Mumbai, which was its birthplace.
Deora supported Raja’s plan to move court against the BMC’s latest lottery drawn on Tuesday for ward reservations for the BMC elections scheduled for September/October.
Deora, who was a former Union minister, said the Congress had joined an alliance with the Shiv Sena and NCP to keep the BJP out. “Just because we joined an alliance to keep BJP out, Congress must not play third fiddle and risk becoming irrelevant in Mumbai, its birthplace. We have a duty towards our corporators, karyakartas and above all, the voters of Mumbai. I second the proposal to knock on the court’s doors,” Deora said in a tweet.
Raja had alleged BMC chief Iqbal Chahal had made a systematic attempt to finish the Congress from Mumbai. “This seems to be unfair and part of a plan by the ruling party (Shiv Sena). Municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal is responsible for this. He has taken supari to finish the Congress,” Raja had said. Raja’s own ward, No. 182 in Sion, has been reserved for women, and Raja will now have to search for a new ward to fight the polls.
“The Congress has always opposed the arbitrary conduct of the municipal commissioner,” he said.
