Mahayuti Leaders File Nominations for Chairmanship of Mumbai Statutory Committees

Days after members to the statutory committees were inducted, Mahayuti leaders on Wednesday filed their nominations for chairmanship to four major statutory committees with BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena both likely to appoint its chairpersons to two statutory committees each. On Wednesday, senior BJP leader Prabhakar Shinde filed nominations for chairmanship of the standing committee while Rajshri Shirwadkar submitted nominations to chair the education committee. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena corporator Sandhya Doshi and Trushna Vishwasrao filed papers for chairmanship of the improvement and BEST committee respectively. Earlier this week, on Monday, 90 of the newly elected councillors were inducted into the four statutory committees. Each of the committees is helmed by a chairman, who is slated to be elected among the members, starting February 20. While the chairmen to the education and standing committee are set to be appointed on February 20, while the chairmen of the BEST and improvement committee will be inducted on February 23. The BJP pick for the Standing committee chairman, Prabhakar Shinde entered politics in 1973 as a Shiv Sainik, becoming a corporator from Mulund East first in 1997. In 1999, he held the seat of BEST committee chairman while also serving as the leader of the house in BMC between 2002 and 2006. In 2017, Shinde joined BJP. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena’s Sandhya Doshi was first elected as a corporator in 2007. Now eyeing to serve as the improvement committee chairman, Doshi has previously served two terms as chairman of the civic education committee. Trushna Vishwasrao, who has submitted papers for the BEST committee, has previously served as the first female corporator to become the leader of the house. While leaders of the Mahayuti filed nominations for the chairperson’s post, officials said that no corporators of the opposition had filed papers to helm the chairpersons seats. “If there is no opposition or fight then the chairpersons will be declared unopposed. Like the mayoral appointment, no elections will be conducted with the chairmen likely to be appointed directly,” said a BMC official.