Thane: Close on the heels of forests minister Ganesh Naik scheduled to address his first janta darbar in Thane on Monday, two elected BJP representatives from the city – MLA Sanjay Kelkar and MLC Niranjan Davkhare – also joined in the trend and announced camps to address resident grievances in the city.
Naik, who is the guardian minister for neighbouring Palghar district, announced his plans last month to hold public meetings in Thane. Following this, the weekly meetings to be held by Kelkar and Davkhare have apparently fuelled speculations about whether the BJP was preparing to challenge Shiv Sena and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s dominance in his stronghold.
“I have been in touch with almost all residential societies in the city and solving their issues for the last several years. My colleague MLC Davkhare and I are now meeting residents twice every week to resolve citizen-related issues at our party offices… The concept of public meetings isn’t new for us, and BJP has been reaching out to residents from the city and district for the last 3.5 decades, and we will continue this tradition,” said MLA Kelkar.
Meanwhile, even as BJP leaders dismissed speculations of the darbar initiative being a challenge to Shinde’s dominance in Thane city and district, observers hint the party could be slowly but steadily making advances towards reclaiming its citadel which was handed over to the Sena during the tenure of late Sena leader Anand Dighe. Interestingly, Naik’s Monday darbar will be held at Kharkar Ali, barely a few hundred metres away from the Sena stronghold and headquarters at Tembhi Naka.
Ganesh Naik’s son and former MP Sanjeev Naik, who was in Thane Saturday to oversee preparations for the janta darbar, said around 150 applications have already been received so far and are expecting more. “The talks of Naik Saheb’s darbar being a show of strength are ‘baseless rumours’ possibly spread by our opponents. We are following instructions from our senior leaders, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, to hold darbars (public meets) at different places to resolve public grievances instead of making them travel to the state headquarters. Our Mahayuti alliance (BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP) remains strong, and allies are united,” he said.
On the other hand, the Thane district administration has also directed concerned departments to ensure presence of their representatives at the event on Monday.
Thane: Close on the heels of forests minister Ganesh Naik scheduled to address his first janta darbar in Thane on Monday, two elected BJP representatives from the city – MLA Sanjay Kelkar and MLC Niranjan Davkhare – also joined in the trend and announced camps to address resident grievances in the city.
Naik, who is the guardian minister for neighbouring Palghar district, announced his plans last month to hold public meetings in Thane. Following this, the weekly meetings to be held by Kelkar and Davkhare have apparently fuelled speculations about whether the BJP was preparing to challenge Shiv Sena and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s dominance in his stronghold.
“I have been in touch with almost all residential societies in the city and solving their issues for the last several years. My colleague MLC Davkhare and I are now meeting residents twice every week to resolve citizen-related issues at our party offices… The concept of public meetings isn’t new for us, and BJP has been reaching out to residents from the city and district for the last 3.5 decades, and we will continue this tradition,” said MLA Kelkar.
Meanwhile, even as BJP leaders dismissed speculations of the darbar initiative being a challenge to Shinde’s dominance in Thane city and district, observers hint the party could be slowly but steadily making advances towards reclaiming its citadel which was handed over to the Sena during the tenure of late Sena leader Anand Dighe. Interestingly, Naik’s Monday darbar will be held at Kharkar Ali, barely a few hundred metres away from the Sena stronghold and headquarters at Tembhi Naka.
Ganesh Naik’s son and former MP Sanjeev Naik, who was in Thane Saturday to oversee preparations for the janta darbar, said around 150 applications have already been received so far and are expecting more. “The talks of Naik Saheb’s darbar being a show of strength are ‘baseless rumours’ possibly spread by our opponents. We are following instructions from our senior leaders, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, to hold darbars (public meets) at different places to resolve public grievances instead of making them travel to the state headquarters. Our Mahayuti alliance (BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP) remains strong, and allies are united,” he said.
On the other hand, the Thane district administration has also directed concerned departments to ensure presence of their representatives at the event on Monday.
