BEST committee to witness reshuffle from April 1

MUMBAI: From April 1, there will be a reshuffle in the BEST committee. Veteran Congress member Ravi Raja will not continue in the panel after serving for 16 years. Senior BJP member Dilip Patel, who was also the chairman of the committee a couple of years back, will not continue as well.
Both Raja and Patel were known for raising several key issues in the interest of bus commuters across Mumbai and electricity consumers in the island city.
The BEST committee will also see some new members including Pramod Mandrekar, Shivji Singh and Mohammed Gaus from the Congress. Shriniwas Tripathi, an active BJP worker, will replace Patel on the panel.
While Shiv Sena members including Sunil Ganacharya, Suhas Samant and Ashok Patil continue in the committee, the MNS will have a new member, Sandeep Deshpande who is a corporator from Shivaji Park and known for taking an aggressive stand in the BMC standing committee.
There are indications that Ashok Patil may continue as the chairman in the panel for 2013-14. However, there will be election for the post of chairman in the second week of April.