June 7: The differences between the ruling Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sitting in the opposition in the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has spilt on to the streets.Nearly 3,000 BJP activists of the Kalyan district took out a morcha on Sunday protesting `the inefficient and corrupt practices of the ruling party.' Starting from Oak Baug, the protesters wound their way through the sensitive Mohammed Ali chowk, the busy Laxmi market area and the Shivaji chowk before being stopped by a police contingent near the KDMC gates. The morcha then turned into a public meeting where copies of the `corrupt, anti-people' budget were burned.Nine meetings and a month after Commissioner M Kokate presented the budget, the standing committee has not been able to take a decision on the it. "Every time the panel met some or the other Sena member would be absent and the meeting would be adjourned," said Anil Bhade, a BJP member of the panel, adding, "They want to ensure that the budget goes on tothe general body for approval where they can muzzle our protests on the basis of floor majority without any embarrassing discussions."Besides the budget, the morcha raised the issues of water-scarcity, sanitation, growth of slums and illegal structures, menace of stray cattle and dogs on the streets, setting up of empowered ward committees, declaration of hawker zones and the rehabilitation of residents in the 319 endangered buildings in the KDMC limits. Later, a delegation led by MLA and district BJP chief Digamber Vishe met the Commissioner and presented a memorandum. An irate corporator Harschandra Patil asked the Commissioner, "Is it not true that a simple pipe burst took 48 hours to fix?" and charged that it was this apathy which had led to the water problem being ignored. Regardless of state-level alliance the local BJP unit has been more strident in its opposition to the Sena than the Congress. Labour Minister Sabir Sheikh (Sena) and the tourism minister Jagannath Patil (BJP) have visited thedistrict to prevent local differences growing into a crisis and pose problems for the alliance. This has only led to a confusion in the BJP rank and file.However, Vishe denied this but was at pains to explain what then prevented the local BJP from taking a categorical stand on the ruling party. Meanwhile, the Sena has called the morcha "a publicity stunt." Mayor Sharayu Pradhan (Sena) claimed that Vishe did not utter a word on her party's inefficiency and corruption when he met her later in the day.
