Cold war continues within Sena in Sambhajinagar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: After the recent war of words between district guardian minister Sanjay Shirsat and newly elected deputy mayor Rajendra Janjal, the Shiv Sena unit in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar is now witnessing differences over selecting the group leader of the party in the municipal corporation. While Shirsat was keen to name former mayor Trimbak Tupe, Janjal and his supporters recommended other names. Even though DCM Eknath Shinde sent a party observer to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to iron out differences between warring factions, and the Shirsat camp claimed that a consensus was reached in the name of Tupe, Janjal on Saturday claimed otherwise. "It is a rumour that the name of the group leader is finalised. Nothing is final yet, and all options are open before the party," he said. Janjal said Shinde convened a meeting of winners of different local self-governing body elections of Sena on Feb 17, in which the name of the group leader would be finalised. Soon after he was elected as the deputy mayor on Feb 10, Janjal trained guns on Shirsat by saying that the guardian minister opposed his name as he was allegedly keen to offer the post to her daughter. Ridiculing Janjal's claim, Shirsat said that he was not against Janjal. On a satirical note, Shirsat said that he was even ready to offer Janjal wishes to become the CM in future. In response, Janjal said he was ready to become the "guardian minister". The remarks by the deputy mayor were seen as a clear intention by Janjal to reduce the influence of Shirsat. Shirsat could not be reached for his comments on the outcome of the Feb 17 meeting in question. While the undivided Sena was the single largest party after the last municipal polls, the Shinde and Thackeray factions of Sena won 13 and 6 seats, respectively, with BJP bagging maximum 57 seats. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Valentine's day wishes, messages and quotes !