BMC polls: Dissent hits all parties as nomination closes

Mumbai: On the last day of filing nominations for the BMC polls, almost all the parties, including Shiv Sena and BJP faced rebellion over ticket distribution. The workers alleged nepotism and also expressed their anger over tickets allocation to what they dubbed as “outsiders.”

Miffed with the party leadership, many of the workers have decided to contest elections as independent candidates. On the other hand, Congress leadership has officially release the list after directly giving nomination forms to candidates to avoid rebellion.

Till Friday evening, 7602 candidates fielded their nominations for 227 wards in Mumbai. The political parties have time until February 7 to convince the rebels to withdraw their nominations and help the official party candidate.

The main political parties in Mumbai have witnessed unprecedented chaos and rebellion in last two days of filing nominations for the BMC polls. The Sena workers even protested at some places by locking their own party offices.

A miffed party worker claimed. “Almost all the parties have encouraged nepotism and dynasty politics. This has hurt the sentiments of many loyal workers.”

Shiv Sena has witnessed rebellion in Mahim, Prabhadevi and Ghatkopar areas, the sources said. In the BJP rebellion erupted in Goregaon, where relatively new leader Samir Desai was promised ticket, but deputy mayor Dilip Patel was give the nomination form.

The BJP workers are unhappy in some parts of the city, as the party gave tickets to “outsiders and relatives of the established leaders.”

As many as 7,602 nominations have been filed for 227 seats, which an official from the State Election Commission said that was  unexpected.