MUMBAI: After scrapping of Nanar refinery project Shiv Sena is now eyeing more share of power on all levels and has started advancing political demands. As a first step, the party that sits in opposition in Pune Municipal Corporation has demanded chairmanship of the standing committee.
Its hold in municipal councils and corporations had been core of the Shiv Sena’s political power in the state. However, in the past five years, the BJP had systematically replaced the Shiv Sena from several of the local self-government bodies. Now, after announcement of the alliance, Shiv Sena wants to claim equal share of power in all such bodies and the demand raised at Pune is being seen as just the beginning. A senior Shiv Sena leader had said during alliance negotiations that the party won’t agree for alliance unless it gets share in either Pune or Nashik Municipal Corporation. It appears that the plan is being acted upon now.
Though the alliance was announced about a month back, the Shiv Sena was not very sure that all the terms of the alliance pact would be kept by the BJP. On this backdrop, the order for land acquisition for the Greenfield refinery at Nanar in Ratnagiri district was denotified last week. This was a huge success for the Shiv Sena, that had been opposing the multi-billion dollar project. Hence, the pressure is being created over the BJP to share power on all levels.
Meanwhile, though the project has been denotified, Shiv Sena doesn’t want itself to be projected anti-development and hence it has said that the project can be moved to some other suitable place on the Konkan coast within Maharashtra state. Sources have even indicated that the new place can be decided after the Lok Sabha polls.
A few places like Guhagar and Roha had been under consideration for the project even before Nanar was chosen for it. A couple of more places too can prop up for consideration, the sources have said.