Mumbai: Ahead of the high stakes Assembly by-election in the Andheri East constituency, the alleged refusal of accepting the resignation letter of Rituja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where she worked as a clerk, has become a fresh bone of contention between the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena and the BJP-Eknath Shinde faction known as "Bala Saheb's Shiv Sena".
Latke resigned from the BMC on September 2 announcing her decision to contest the by-election as a candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) group on the 'Mashal' (flaming torch) symbol.
But Latke, who was working in the office of the Circle Deputy Commissioner of BMC, has approached the Bombay High Court claiming that the BMC has not accepted her resignation, submitted a month ago, despite all formalities being completed. She is being represented by lawyer Bishwajit Sawant.
Since the late date for filing the nomination of the by-election is October 14, Latke has urged the court to conduct an immediate hearing of her plea and it will be heard on Thursday. Latke stated in her petition that since she was unable to serve the notice period of one month, she deposited her one month's salary to the BMC as per official procedure but even then her resignation was not accepted.
Reacting to the development MLA Anil Parab, who belongs to the Uddhav faction said "that the Andheri by-election was announced after the death of Ramesh Latke. On behalf of Shiv Sena, Rituja Ramesh Latke announced his candidature We announced the candidature of Rituja Latke to support the family. She resigned on September 2 2022 but was told that her resignation could not be accepted." " The state government has ordered the BMC officials not to accept resignations. There is pressure from the government on the officials," alleged Parab.
Denying the allegation Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Wednesday said “The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is a self-governing and autonomous body. The BMC administration will decide whether to accept the resignation of Latke or not. The Maharashtra government has nothing to do with the alleged delay in accepting the resignation."
