Shirsat-Jaiswal dispute in Shinde Sena on the rise

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

Internal differences between Shinde Sena leaders and guardian minister Sanjay Shirsat and MLA Pradeep Jaiswal over an alliance with the BJP in the municipal corporation elections have now flared up on the occasion of the deputy mayor’s post selection. Without keeping the guardian minister in the loop, MLA Jaiswal held talks with party chief Eknath Shinde and secured the deputy mayoral candidacy for his group’s Rajendra Janjal. Following this, Shirsat appointed Trimbak Tupe from his group as the leader of the party group.

Factionalism within Shinde Sena during the municipal corporation elections proved costly for the party. As a result, only 13 Shinde Sena corporators could enter the corporation. Of these, nine belong to Shirsat’s group, two from Jaiswal’s constituency, and two including district president Rajendra Janjal, taking the total to 13.

The election for the mayor and deputy mayor posts is scheduled for February 10. The BJP, which won 57 seats, decided to take Shinde Sena along by offering it the deputy mayor’s post. After this, guardian minister Shirsat held a meeting at his bungalow to declare either former mayor Trimbak Tupe or his daughter Harshada as the deputy mayoral candidate from his group.

On the other hand, MLA Jaiswal and district president Janjal made moves to ensure that the deputy mayor’s post would not go to Shirsat’s group and succeeded in securing the candidature for Janjal. The party issued a letter stating that janjal’s candidature for the deputy mayor’s post had been finalised on the orders of deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.

Angered by this development, guardian minister Shirsat and corporators from his group were seen not accompanying Janjal while filing the nomination for the deputy mayor’s post. To counter Jaiswal and Janjal, Shirsat appointed former mayor Trimbak Tupe as the group leader and registered this group with the divisional commissioner. However, this group comprised only nine corporators, while the remaining four registered individually. Even so, political circles are predicting that the Shirsat versus Jaiswal conflict is likely to intensify in the coming days.

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Now, in the mayoral and deputy mayoral elections, Trimbak Tupe, as the group leader, will have to issue the party whip to all corporators. Whether the disgruntled corporators from the Shirsat group vote for Janjal in accordance with this whip is being keenly watched.