Welcoming the Bombay High Court's directive to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (MC) to accept the resignation of Rutuja Latke, the party's candidate for the Andheri (East) Assembly bypoll, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena said on Thursday it was "unfortunate" that they had to move the court in this matter and blamed the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra for "using the civic body" for their own political gain. "There was no need for the ones in power to be so insensitive and cruel in this case. We all have been seeing how this government works; how the state government gives orders to the BMC or government officials. Now, the question is if there is democracy in the country or fascism," said Shiv Sena MLA and former minister Aaditya Thackeray, reacting to the verdict. Aaditya will accompany Latke during her nomination filing on Friday. Latke said that "she was relieved following the HC judgment". "I did not want to move the High Court, and was expecting cooperation from the BMC. However, I had no other option and had to go to the court. I had faith in the judiciary, and I have got justice. I'm relieved. I will contest the election from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) only," she said. Questioning the conduct of BMC officials, Shiv Sena MLC Anil Parab said, "Latke followed all the procedures while resigning, and all the documents were correct and cleared and she had no inquiry pending against her. But the BMC still did not accept her resignation. It is unfortunate that we had to approach the HC to get a relief in the issue. She (a widow) had to suffer. Till the last moment, it (BMC) kept opposing the move and stated that a corruption complaint was filed against Latke on October 12. This was when she had already resigned on October 3. This shows the low level of politics continuing in the state." Parab also appealed to the BJP to "let the bypoll take place unopposed". "It is sad that the woman (Latke), who lost her husband, has to go door-to-door to ask for votes. Maharashtra has a tradition that if any legislator or public representative passes away , the other parties do not field its candidate during the bypoll and a family member of the deceased gets elected from the constituency unopposed. I still feel that the BJP should not field its candidate for the bypoll, it should continue the tradition," he said. The HC in its order had pulled up the BMC for what it said was the civic body's "arbitrary conduct". Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal did not comment on the matter despite several attempts. Senior police officials, meanwhile, told The Indian Express that the commissioner's intervention was required in Latke's resignation case as she had mentioned in the resignation letter that "she will contest the bypoll on November 3". "Usually a decision on the resignation of an employee is taken by the head of the department concerned. According to the rules, waiving the notice period is possible only after assessing the gravity of the reason given by the outgoing employee. However, the employee (Latke) in this case had expressed her interest in contesting the bypoll. that is why a nod from the municipal commissioner, who is the state-appointed administrator, is required," said a senior official, on the condition of anonymity. Ravi Raja, former Leader of Opposition (LoP) in BMC and a Congress corporator, said that the HC order showed "an administrative failure of the BMC". "This episode clearly shows that the BMC administration has not done its homework properly. The law department needs to understand the functionality of BMC much more seriously, because this was the second time in a month that the HC pulled up the civic body over an issue," said Raja.
