MUMBAI, MAY 13: Ambernath Municipal Council (AMC) president, Purnima Kabre, has resigned on the directive of Kalyan district Bharatiya Janata Party president, MLA Digmaber Vishe. Kabre, who submitted her resignation to the Thane collector Mukesh Khullar late on Wednesday, has said she was made a spacegoat to accommodate the political ambitions of state labour minister Sabir Shaikh.``I was pressurised to resign due to the machinations of Sheikh, who was beginning to resent my increasing popularity,'' Kabre told Express Newsline. ``Vishe and former minister Jagannath Patil also sided with him,'' she stated. Kabre also blamed Shiv Sena MP Prakash Paranjpe for having a hand in her sacking. Thane-based Sena leader Anand Dighe and Sheikh are known to have their differences, and a word by Paranjpe helped ensure that Dighe, his mentor, went along with the decision.Kabre, who has completed a year in office, is also chairperson of the Municipal Council Presidents' Mahasangh. Given Kabre's popularity and her alleged closeness to deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, her name was doing the rounds as a probable candidate for the forthcoming assembly polls from here. This allegedly riled sitting candidate Sheikh, whose eroded mass base has seen him getting increasingly involved in local politics. Sheikh, however, merely said, ``Ultimately, it is for senior party leaders to decide. I can't make any demands and get them passed.''In February, a conference of CEOs and presidents of 228 municipal councils in the state was held at Ambernath, where Kabre had demanded that the tenure of presidency be increased. Last month, the state government announced that the tenure of presidency in municipal councils would be hiked from one year to two-and-a-half years.``If this is the backdoor way of getting around what is declared on the floor of the assembly, then why take the trouble of making any announcement at all?'' Kabre demanded to know. ``It is an unfair and unjust decision, but we are going to abide by it because the leadership seems to have been constrained to take it.'' Shaikh refused to comment on whether the demand to replace Kabre with a Sena president contradicted the CM's declaration on the tenure of council presidents.Vishe merely stated that Kabre was asked to quit in keeping with the understanding between the alliance at the council that the presidency would go to the Sena after a year. Sources say a decision on seat sharing in Ambernath for the assembly elections between the BJP and Sena has already been taken, whereby Ambernath will go to the BJP and Kalyan will stay with the Sena, a decision that could harm Sheikh's chances.Due to Kabre's resignation, elections to the civic committees scheduled for today were boycotted by the opposition Congress, which claimed the polls were illegal in the absence of a presiding officer. Umashankar Trivedi, Naresh Gaikwad and advocate Yashwant Joshi said they plan to move court over the elections. The elections saw Abdul Sheikh (health), Subhash Ghone (public works), Anita Bhoir (water supply), Bhagwan Patil (education), Mandakini Bhoir (women and child welfae) and Pradip Khanvilkar (planning and development) emerge victorious.
