On Thursday morning, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulldozed a shakha (local branch office) that was being administered in an illegal manner by members of the Thackeray faction of the Sena.
A highly dramatic situation is developing in Mumbai as the civic authority moves through with demolishing the Uddhav Sena camp’s Bandra East office on the grounds that it was operating illegally. At the location, camp supporters have assembled, impeding the action and escalating the tension.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray declared on Tuesday that the party would stage a march on the BMC offices in South Mumbai on July 1. The demolition took place barely two days later.
Source: Amit Chakravarty
Local Sena UBT members claimed that the action sprang from political vengeance, while civic officials insisted that the shakha was built unlawfully.
The Shakha was founded in 2002 and is situated next to railway tracks in the Nirmal Nagar neighbourhood of Bandra East. The majority of its members were locals who resided in surrounding slum neighbourhoods.
On Thursday morning, the demolition got underway amid intense police security. Former corporator and current member of Sena’s Thackeray faction Haji Halim Khan claimed that last week, Shinde faction members requested him to join their side. “As the former local corporator, I have jurisdiction over this shakha. I was requested to join the Shinde faction’s squad and run in the forthcoming municipal elections them last week by members of that faction. When I declined their offer, they threatened to have our shakha torn down by city officials, Khan said on Thursday. He claimed that state minister Uday Samant from the Shinde group opened a new shakha 300 meters distant two weeks ago.
Source: Amit Chakravarty
“All of our shakha’s paperwork proves our legitimacy, yet BMC authorities were unwilling to work with us. Ironically, because it belonged to the Shinde faction, the new Shakha established by recovering a drain was regarded as legitimate.
An official who requested anonymity said, “We had served a notice to this shakha’s office bearers to voluntarily take down unauthorized portions of the office,” despite city officials remaining mum about the demolition effort. We had to tear down the office since it operated outside the rules. The official continued, “Currently, a road widening project will be undertaken, for which we are eliminating this shakha along with a few other shanties, which are falling inside the line of the proposed road.
Live streaming allowed viewers to watch the dramatic scenes on their technological devices as well. Supporters of Eknath Shinde’s BJP government were referred to as having a vendetta.
It is important to remember that the Sena (UBT) had earlier on Wednesday organized a protest march against BMC headquarters, led by Aaditya Thackeray, to express opposition to corruption in the civic offices.
