Marathi manoos Kunte is new BMC chief Dark horse, picked with eye on 2014, pips top contenders; Cong upset with ‘weak’ choice

Marathi manoos Kunte is new BMC chief

Dark horse, picked with eye on 2014, pips top contenders; Cong upset with ‘weak’ choice

Keeping the 2014 Lok Sabha and state assembly elections in mind, chief minister (CM) Prithviraj Chavan on Monday appointed Marathi manoos Sitaram Kunte as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner. Kunte replaces Subodh Kumar who retired as civic chief on Monday. Kunte’s appointment raised eyebrows among bureaucrats because he pipped favourites such as urban development department’s principal secretary TC Benjamin, principal secretary to chief minister AK Jain, housing secretary Gautam Chatterjee and MMRDA chief Rahul Asthana. “From Monday morning to evening, everyone in Mantralaya was betting on Benjamin or Jain to succeed Kumar. However, Kunte emerged as a dark horse at the last minute and changed everything,” a senior government official told DNA. He said his phone hasn’t stopped ringing as people are calling to confirm whether Kunte indeed has been appointed BMC chief. Sources close to the CM told DNA that Chavan was gearing up for the 2014 elections. “The CM is concentrating more on the ever-increasing urban voters in the Mumbai, Thane and Pune belts. There are 90 assembly and 15 Lok Sabha seats in these regions. If the Congress wins seats here, Chavan can retain the CM’s post and send enough MPs to form the government at the Centre,” the official said. He said it was evident that the CM was wooing urban voters even when he made changes in the development control rules. “The long-awaited housing regulatory bill was also tabled in the assembly. The builder lobby is not happy with the CM, but he wants to win urban voters through such decisions,” the official said. Congress leaders, however, are not happy with Kunte’s appointment. Some of them have termed Chavan’s move as foolish. “It raises questions whether Maharashtra is run by Matoshree (Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s residence) or 10 Janpath (official residence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi). It is a politically wrong decision. Kunte is very close to Matoshree and is a mild person. He cannot control the BMC. He is not the sort of person who sticks by his decision. He has a habit of changing his decisions under pressure. We wanted a strict civic chief who could take forward the legacy of Subodh Kumar,” said a senior Congress leader.