A Shiv Sena rebel group today demanded that Goa state president Upendra Gaonkar be ousted from the post accusing him of being involved in financial irregularities.
The rebel faction led by Panaji unit president Shrikrishna Veluskar alleged that Gaonkar was involved in financial irregularities and has been responsible for crumbling the party organisation in the state.
Gaonkar, however, has refuted the charges claiming that most of the rebel leaders have already been expelled by the party supremo Balasaheb Thackrey and executive president Uddhav Thackrey.
The rebel leader Veluskar said that they have been pressing for change in leadership for last three months."We have submitted a memorandum to the party high command. This week, we are leaving to Mumbai to personally meet the party leaders and convey to them the large scale irregularities committed by Gaonkar," Veluskar said.
Shiv Sena leader Shashikant Sardesai said that Shiv Sena is slowly losing its base in Goa due to lack of interest by Gaonkar towards its growth.
"We were told that lot of money is received by local party unit to spend for the day to day office expenses. But somehow no one knows where that money goes," he alleged.
The rebel leaders said that Shiv Sena observers like Subhash Sawant descend in Goa, meet a handful of self proclaimed leaders and go back to Mumbai.
"They never meet the actual leaders. We have no faith in such observers," he said adding there was Shiv Sena in Goa but there were no Shiv Sainiks. Sardesai said that many leaders were expelled from the party by Gaonkar without issuing them show cause notice.
Gaonkar refuting the charges said that the high command has already taken the detailed report from him on the Goa situation. "The rebels had demanded my ouster almost three months ago. But high command is very well aware of the work I have done during my tenure since 2006," he said.
The Shiv Sena Goa chief said that such a rebel will wither away as they don't muster much support in the party.
Comments