Key Points
Barely 24 hours after Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray announced a march protesting alleged scams in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the last one year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the houses of Suraj Chavan, party secretary and a close aide of Aaditya Thackeray, and Sujit Patkar, a friend of MP Sanjay Raut.on..
Though the central agency claimed that the searches were part of its probe into the irregularities in the BMC awarding a contract to Lifeline Hospital Management Services for two jumbo Covid-19 centres, the Sena (UBT) called it a conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to malign the image of the Thackeray family ahead of the civic elections..
Sena (UBT) MP and chief spokesperson Arvind Sawant alleged that the raids were nothing but pressure tactics and a conspiracy to malign the image of the Thackeray family..
According to a leader, who attended the meeting, Thackeray said that these raids were part of the BJPs strategy to malign the image of his family ahead of the BMC polls..
In a counterattack, Thackeray on Tuesday announced that his party would take out a protest march to the BMC headquarters on July 1 to question the scams done by the administration of the civic body in the last one year since the tenure of the elected body was over and the BMC was handled by the municipal commissioner who reports to the urban development department headed by Shinde..
