Civic polls: Parties fail to woo rebels, decide to expel them

After political parties failed to woo the rebels, it has decided to expel them for contesting against the officials candidates in the civic elections on February 16.

On Monday evening, the BJP expelled four sitting and two former corporators along with nine office bearers from the party. The sitting corporators are Janak Sanghvi, Jayshri Kharat, Vishwanath Maske and Arvind Bane and former corporators are Parag Alwani and Arvind Parmar.

"They have been expelled for six years as per the norms. The decision was taken by the district and Mumbai president using the powers conferred to them by the state president," said Niranjan Shetty, BJP, media in-charge.

The Shiv Sena, which is facing a considerable number of rebels of around nine, has also initiated action against them. "Uddhavji was expected to address the issue of rebellions in a rally today," said Anil Desai, Sena secretary.

This civic election has seen more party workers rebelling than earlier elections, say political observers. "The number of rebels is more this time. Expelling them is common. The political parties will revoke the expulsion order after the elections are over," said a political observer, requesting anonymity.

Sachin Sawant, Congress spokesperson for the state, said: "We have prepared a list of 40-45 rebels, including two corporators. The party will expel them on Wednesday."

The NCP is taking preventive measures before expelling the rebels and has asked them to help party candidates.

"We have already conveyed our message to the rebels that they should stop canvassing for others and help the party candidates in their respective areas. It will help the party to win more seats. Now, we are just waiting for their response," said Nitin Kadam, NCP general secretary for Mumbai."If they fail to do so, we will immediately expel them," he added.

The MNS, which is contesting 223 seats for the first time in the BMC polls, is also facing the rebels but is yet to decide on the action against them. "We are yet to decide what action should be taken against the rebels," said Shirish Parkar, general secretary of MNS.