Sena UBT former BMC corporator Tejaswi Ghosalkar quits party post
In yet another setback for Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) in Mumbai, party's former corporator Tejasvee Ghosalkar, who is the wife of slain party leader and former corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar, resigned from the party post on Tuesday, citing personal reasons and expressing displeasure over the functioning of the local leadership in North Mumbai.
Ghosalkar, who was the Sena UBT's women's wing head for the Dahisar Assembly segment, submitted her resignation via WhatsApp to the local party unit. The Ghosalkars had a long association with the Thackeray family.
Citing personal reasons for the resignation, her WhatsApp message to the local leadership of Sena said, 'I thank the party leadership for the opportunity to serve and respectfully request that my resignation be accepted.'
According to sources in the Sena UBT, party chief Uddhav Thackeray called her to convince her to withdraw her resignation. Even as Ghosalkar has not yet announced any further steps, it is being speculated that she may join the Shinde-led Sena or the BJP.
Abhishek Ghosalkar was shot dead in early 2024 during a Facebook Live by local resident Morris Noronha — an incident that sent shockwaves through the city and catalysed her entry into public life.
Tejasvee's father-in-law Vinod Ghosalkar had contested the Assembly polls from Dahisar seat in the 2024 polls on the Sena UBT ticket, but lost. Vinod Ghosalkar is considered to be loyal to the Thackeray family. It is, however, speculated that her strained relation with her father-in-law is one of the reasons for her resignation, apart from the differences with the party's local leadership.
Half of undivided Sena corporators with Shinde
Nearly 50 per cent of the corporators of the undivided Shiv Sena in 2017 have now aligned themselves with the Eknath Shinde-led faction, after the party's vertical split in 2022.
The undivided Shiv Sena, under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, had secured 84 seats in the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. However, since the split, 43 former corporators joined the faction led by Eknath Shinde.
Prominent among those who shifted allegiance include former corporators Ameya Ghole, Samadhan Sarvankar, Sheetal Mhatre, Yashwant Jadhav, Raju Pednekar, Suvarna Karanje and Snehal Shinde. The exodus is being viewed as a significant boost for the Shinde-led Sena as it gears up for civic polls in Mumbai.
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