She is upset with Sena corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar who had filed a complaint against her for violating the election code of conduct.
Speculations are rife in political circles that Former Mayor Shubha Raul is likely to join BJP after she refused to file AB forms from Shiv Sena party. Raul is upset with Sena corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar son of former Sena MLA Vinod Ghosalkar who had filed a complaint against her for violating the election code of conduct. Shiv Sena had issued AB forms to 150 candidates. Since Raul knew that she is being sidelined by Sena as the party might not issue a ticket to her for contesting Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election she may shift loyalties towards BJP. Shubha Raul is a corporator for ward no 8 of the BMC.
A non-cognizable (NC) offence was registered against Shubha Raul, corporator Sheetal Mhatre and corporator Avkash Jadhav at MHB police station in Borivali for violating model code of conduct by inaugurating a garden at LIC colony. The BMC had issued a show cause notice to these leaders. Thus internal rivalry is prevalent within the Sena ahead of the civic body election as corporator is filing complaint against a member from their own party. After Ghosalkar had filed complaint against Raul she had taken up the matter with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. Subsequently, Uddhav had suspended Ghosalkar from the party but he was reinstated within the same day which upset Shubha. She was expecting that Uddhav might take stringent action against Ghosalkar but he got reprieve.
Shubha Raul said, “I won’t be contesting the BMC election and I have already spoken in this regard with Uddhav Thackeray three months back. I had clarified my stand with him hence he has issued tickets to other candidates who are keen to contest the election. I have taken this decision to provide opportunity to youth candidate for contesting election.”
On the other hand, Mayor Snehal Ambekar has been issued a ticket from ward number 195 which she disapproves. AB form has been issued to Trishna Vishwasrao, corporator Kishori Pednekar, Sheetal Mhatre, Ashish Chemburkar and Mangesh Satamkar. Sena has issued ticket to Deepa Patil from ward 8 from where Raul used to contest polls.
The rivarly between Raul and Ghosalkar family is not new as earlier she had quit Sena citing difference of opinion with Vinod Ghosalkar. Later she contested the state assembly polls on MNS ticket. However, she returned to Sena but now has taken a decision against contesting civic body polls.
Raul has been a three-time corporator and served as Mumbai’s mayor between 2007-09. A corporator from the R/North ward (which includes Dahisar), Raul fought for the Dahisar Assembly seat against Sena’s Vinod Ghosalkar and BJP’s Manisha Chaudhary. The BJP candidate defeated Ghosalkar with more than 75,000 votes.
