Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Feb 20: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Prabhakar Shinde and Rajashree Shirwadkar were on Friday elected unopposed as chairpersons of two crucial committees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

While Shinde will head the civic standing committee, Shirwadkar has been elected chairperson of the education committee. These two panels play a pivotal role in shaping the financial policies of the BMC and overseeing the administration of more than 400 educational institutions run by the civic body.

The duo’s election was uncontested as the Shiv Sena (UBT), the second largest party in the BMC, chose not to field candidates for the posts.

A seasoned corporator, Shinde has represented his ward five times over nearly three decades. He joined the BJP in 2017 and was appointed the party’s group leader in the same year. Shinde began his political journey in 1976 with the undivided Shiv Sena.

In 1994, he was elected to the Kamgaar Sena, the workers’ union of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking and the BMC. Two years later, he was elected chairperson of the committee. Between 2002 and 2006, he also served as the Shiv Sena’s leader of the House in the BMC.

The appointments are seen as significant, given the standing committee’s influence over the BMC’s budgetary allocations and expenditure approvals, and the education committee’s responsibility for civic-run schools and academic policy decisions.

With the key panels now under BJP leadership, political observers say the party has consolidated its position within Mumbai’s civic administration.