Mumbai: After guardian minister (suburbs) Mangal Prabhat Lodha, now Deepak Kesarkar, guardian minister (city), has been allotted a cabin in the BMC headquarters. He will be meeting the citizens to hear their grievances between 1 and 4 pm every Wednesday.
Delayed BMC elections
As of now, the term of the elected corporators, which concludes on March 7, 2022, has not seen the municipal corporation's elections conducted, leaving the BMC without sitting corporators. The current administration is overseen by Iqbal Singh Chahal, who has been appointed as the administrator by the state government. The political landscape within the BMC witnessed unrest in December 2022, leading to the sealing of party offices belonging to Shiv Sena, Congress, BJP, NCP, and Samajwadi Party due to internal factions within Shiv Sena.
Earlier, the BMC administrator allocated an office on the first floor of the old building to Mangal Prabhat Lodha in July. Despite facing criticism from the opposition, Lodha's office provided a space for former BJP corporators to engage with citizens visiting the BMC headquarters, actively working to resolve their issues. This initiative enabled the BJP to address numerous civic concerns over the past three months.
Following this model, Deepak Kesarkar has been assigned an office adjacent to Lodha's cabin on the first floor of the BMC's old building. Kesarkar is set to visit the office once a week, with former corporators from ShivSena's Shinde faction managing the office for the remaining days. Additionally, the Congress has recently established an office for their former corporators at the Mumbai Region Congress Committee office located at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan near Azad Maidan.
