Poll allies attack own offices

In a similar incident,Sena workers in Fort in South Mumbai attacked their own office. Sena has been contesting from ward number 224 (Mahatma Phule market) and it is being allotted to BJP to allegedly accommodate state president Sudhir Mungantiwar’s personal assistant. Currently,a Congress candidate is elected from the ward.

BJP workers from Chembur voiced their protest when party observers visited the office,ransacked the premises and caused chaos on Monday afternoon. Teams of senior party leaders began visiting Parliament constituencies to assess the mood of workers ahead of the civic elections and their reactions to the current seat-sharing discussions within the alliance.

On Monday afternoon,close to 400 party workers,much beyond the capacity of the party office in Chembur,assembled and protested against the allocation of a traditional BJP ward to Shiv Sena. During the seat-sharing talks,reports indicated that ward number 134 (Mankhurd-Mandala village),currently within BJP quota,was to be assigned to Shiv Sena to accommodate their senior leader Rahul Shewale. Shewale,current chairman of the standing committee,is elected from ward number 136 (Anushakti Nagar).

After the changes of civic wards due to reservations,Shewale’s ward has been reserved for women (Scheduled Tribe),whereas 134 has been changed from women (open) to open category.

Police said an interview session for choosing candidates was taking place and the room had a capacity of 300. However,more than 500 people were inside the room and there was some confusion when they were asked to wait out. “The only damage was that a window was broken when someone was pushed as he was trying to make his way outside the room. All those present were party workers and this was not a case of mischief. Hence,no offence has been registered,” said B B Rathod,Senior PI,Chembur police station.

Despite an announcement of alliance between Shiv Sena,BJP and RPI (Athavale) two months ago,talks over allocation of seats between the three parties have been stretched with new entrant RPI increasing its demand for seats. In 2007,BJP had got 72 seats while Sena contested 155 seats. During the preliminary talks,RPI was offered 22 seats — 15 from the Sena quota and seven from the BJP quota. RPI is now seeking 30 seats in Mumbai,which both the Sena-BJP are finding it difficult to give in to.

Mungantiwar said the Mumbai unit would address the complaint of the workers who protested and they should not take matters in their hand.

“The Mumbai unit will take cognisance of their say. They should not act in an undisciplined manner. We are on the verge of finalising the seats between three parties,” he said. He said 29 seats would be allocated to RPI within the alliance and a formal announcement in this regard would be made on January 11.