The Shiv Sena on Monday moved the Bombay High Court against the nomination of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate and ex-mayor Kishori Pednekar in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections for allegedly suppressing details about the cases against her, PTI reported.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is the governing civic body for Mumbai.
Susie Shah, a spokesperson for the Shiv Sena faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, mentioned the petition before a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad, and sought an urgent hearing.
The bench, however, refused the request, noting that there were only a few days left for the elections. The High Court added that the petition would be taken up after the polls.
The elections for 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the BMC, will be held in a single phase on Thursday. The results will be declared on January 16.
Pednekar had submitted her nomination form to contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections from Ward 199 (Central Mumbai), PTI reported.
In her petition, Shah sought a direction from the court to the returning officer to declare the form submitted by the former mayor as “illegal, invalid and improper”, and to reject it.
She claimed that Pednekar, in her affidavit, had hidden details of five first information reports filed against her in several police stations of Mumbai during her tenure as mayor, the news agency reported.
The FIRs include one pertaining to an alleged fraud committed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the petition claimed.
Shah alleged that the Uddhav Sena candidate had grossly misused the electoral process by submitting a “false and misleading” nomination form and affidavit, adding that she had no moral right to contest the elections.
SC extends timeline to complete polls
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday extended by two weeks the timeline to complete the process for the local body elections in Maharashtra, PTI reported. These elections are for all local bodies in the state, including the zilla parishads, panchayats and municipal corporations.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joyamalya Bagchi issued the order after the State Election Commission, represented by advocate Balbir Singh, said that it had filed an interlocutory petition seeking an extension by 10 days from January 31.
Singh said this was needed as elections were yet to be held for some zila parishads and panchayats.
On September 16, the Supreme Court criticised the State Election Commission for its failure to adhere to an earlier timeline set by it to conduct the local body elections and set January 31 as the final deadline.
The elections in 27 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, 243 nagar parishads and 289 panchayats, had been stalled since 2022 amid a case in the Supreme Court pertaining to reservations for the Other Backward Classes.
This has meant that most urban and rural bodies in the state have been operated without elected representatives. The terms of these representatives for various bodies ended between 2020 and 2022.
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