THANE: The possibility of change in leadership of the opposition parties in the General Body (GB) House of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has ended on Wednesday, thanks to a sensible decision taken by the local leadership of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The party has decided to give an extension of three months to Hanumant Jagdale, the present Leader of Opposition in TMC House.
The decision to the effect was taken during a meeting of NCP leaders under the leadership of MLC and city unit president Jitendra Avhad. Senior party corporators Devram Bhoir as well as Subhash Bhoir were present during the TMC level meeting. The two corporators had held the post for several years before Jagdale.
Hanumant Jagdale was appointed to the post in August 2008 for one year following a directive from Sharad Pawar, the NCP president. Jagdale took over the charge from Devram Bhoir and represented the NCP and the entire opposition in a good way in TMC House meetings. His term was to expire last week and there were many party stalwarts in the fray for the post.
The meeting however decided that it was not the right time to change guard of the opposition. The NCP leaders felt that the state assembly was to go to the polls within a few months and the announcement of the polls would enact the model code of conduct guidelines. The enactment of the guidelines will bring a halt to all civic political activities and a new opposition leader will having nothing to do till the guidelines period is over.
The leaders then decided to extend the term of Jagdale till the end of October this year. With the extension the chances of change in leadership of the opposition till the end of the state assembly polls are over. The extension has also ended chances of heartburn amongst NCP corporators who were in queue to claim the post should Jagdale be removed from it.
Interestingly, the appointment of Jagdale to the post last year prompted big unrest in the NCP party unit of TMC. Pratap Sarnaik, a senior corporator raised the flag of rebellion and claimed to have the support of 19 out of the 25 party corporators. The rebellion was however minimized and only Sarnaik as well as his associate Sudhir Barge were left in the camp that opposed Hanumant Jagdale for the post.
Subsequently, Sarnaik resigned from the TMC House on December 18 last year and joined hands with the Shiv Sena. The Sena fielded his wife Parisha in the bye polls from the ward vacated vacated by the NCP corporator. Parisha won the bye polls with a convincing margin over her lone NCP rival. With her win the strength of the NCP party unit in the TMC House came down to 24.
courtesy
: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
