Thane: Nearly six months after the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) elections, the chairpersons to its nine ward committees were appointed on Tuesday, ending a prolonged delay that had apparently impacted administrative decision-making at the micro level.Eight of the nine ward committee chairperson posts were filled unopposed. The dominance of DY CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was highlighted as party corporators secured seven chairmanships—Ekta Bhoir (Wagle Estate), Nirmala Kanse (Lokmanya Savarkarnagar), Minal Sankhe (Naupada-Kopri), Jayshree David (Vartaknagar), Siddharth Ovalekar (Majiwada-Manpada), Vijaya Lase (Kalwa) and Deepak Jadhav (Diva)—while its state Mahayuti alliance partner BJP was restricted to Uthalsar where corporator Narayan Pawar was elected unopposed.The only contest was in Mumbra, where the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction)’s Dipali Bhagat defeated AIMIM’s Ansari Nafis Ahmed Mohammad Anis, securing 10 of the 14 votes cast.Meanwhile, the appointments come amid speculation within Thane political circles that the Sena, which enjoys a majority in the House, deliberately delayed the process to deny ally BJP a share of key posts. The elections, originally scheduled for March, were then deferred citing oncoming festival season.“Ward committees play a critical role in overseeing local administration, civic works and area-specific development. The delay in their constitution is likely to have impacted several ward-level decisions for last several months. The delay can probably also be due to the ongoing power-sharing tussle between the partners in the district especially Navi Mumbai where the Sena has got an apparent raw deal,” observers said.
