Mumbai: IAS officer Iqbal Singh Chahal, who was praised for the way he handled the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai, is now caught in the middle of a political war between two Shiv Sena – one led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and one by supported BJP, and the other led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray.
On Monday morning, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Chahal spent four hours at the Enforcement Directorate’s Mumbai office, responding to allegations that he illegally hired a company run by an aide of Sanjay Raut to supply medical services for a jumbo Covid centre. The contract was given. Rajya Sabha MP from Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) faction of Shiv Sena.
The complainant in this case was former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who Tweet On Sunday, he said he expected Chahal to “cooperate with the probe agencies” and give them all the necessary information and documents.
But by Monday afternoon, Chahal faced a rebuke from the Shiv Sena (UBT) over alleged irregularities in tenders for road works worth Rs 6,000 crore for Mumbai.
Speaking to reporters, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray said he wrote to Chahal on Monday, questioning the tenders floated by the BMC for concretization of nearly 400 km of roads in the city. Aditya, however, said he had nothing personal against Chahal: “Even though this letter is to the administrator, I am not blaming him personally because I don’t want to make it personal.”
He was a minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. also said Since “BMC currently does not have any corporator, mayor, standing committee or any other committee, it becomes the responsibility of the administrator who unconstitutionally takes orders from the chief minister”. His target was Shinde, who in June last year had brought down the tripartite alliance comprising the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress by rebelling against the Thackeray-led army.
The term of the BMC general body ended on March 8, following which the then Uddhav Thackeray-led state government Chahal appointed As an administrator until new elections are held.
Chahal, a 1989 batch IAS officer, responded by dismissing both the allegations.
Outside the ED office, he told reporters that the jumbo Covid centers were set up on the orders of the Maharashtra government and “lakhs of lives were saved due to timely medical treatment”.
On Aaditya Thackeray’s allegations, BMC issued a statement saying, “Concretization of roads proposed by BMC is as per administrative procedure. (There is) no discrepancy in the tender process.
Monday’s developments cap Chahal’s nearly three-year tenure as BMC chief, during which he found himself in the middle of the Shiv Sena-BJP proxy war – with the first accused of working on the agenda of the Thackeray-led Sena, And now facing criticism. To implement the programs of the present BJP and Shinde-led Shiv Sena government.
ThePrint reached BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal via call but did not get a response till the time of publication. This report will be updated when a response is received.
Read also: Why delay in Shinde cabinet expansion – ‘Afraid of upsetting ambitious MVA dissidents’
In favor of Modi government, close to Thackeray
Chahal – who was once fearless during the previous MVA administration rotated from the central government – was considered close to Thackeray, even more so when the government came under attack from the opposition regarding the rising number of Covid in Mumbai. Chahal eventually won several awards and accolades for his handling of the pandemic by the BMC.
Under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, Chahal was the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the then Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
In 2015, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, Chahal was transferred to the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Here he was put on compulsory leave Allegedly After his ‘tiff’ with the then WCD minister Maneka Gandhi.
In 2016, with three years left for his central deputation to expire, Chahal was prematurely sent back to his native Maharashtra cadre.
However, once back in Maharashtra in 2019, he was posted to key departments such as water resources and urban development under the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Devendra Fadnavis.
Chahal was appointed BMC chief in May 2020 after Chief Minister Thackeray removed IAS Praveen Pardeshi – seen as close to Fadnavis – as Municipal Commissioner over the allegations alleged disturbance In its initial months of the Covid crisis. Chahal was appointed as Pardeshi’s replacement, although he was four years younger to him.
caught in a proxy war
Under previous MVA government, was under BMC continuous fire From the opposition BJP for sending demolition notices under the guise of dealing with “illegal constructions” to people perceived as critical of the MVA, or especially the Thackeray-led Sena. These notices were sent to Union minister Narayan Rane, actress Kangana Ranaut, BJP leader Mohit Kamboj and MP-MLA couple Navneet and Ravi Rana, among others.
In 2020, the BMC ran a bulldozer at Ranaut’s Bandra office bungalow after the actor got into a war of words with Shiv Sena leaders. Maharashtra Human Rights Commission also summons issued Chahal was asked to appear before the panel in this regard after the Bombay High Court directed it to set aside the demolition order and pay damages to the BMC.
In March 2022, after he received several notices from the BMC, seeking an answer on allegations of illegal construction work at his building in Kamboj. targeted Chahal directly sought an income tax probe into Chahal’s “assets in the United States”. At that time, Chahal responded to the allegations leveled against him by Kamboj, saying, “I have zero assets in the USA. The allegations leveled against me are baseless and there is an attempt to drag me into controversy.”
In June 2022, after a Shinde-led rebellion led to the fall of the MVA government and the Shinde-Fadnavis duo assuming power, Chahal remained as the BMC commissioner. And now he finds himself under fire from the same leaders he was accused of supporting.
In September last year, when both the Shinde and Thackeray factions of the Shiv Sena were trying to get permission to hold the party’s annual Dussehra rally at the historic Shivaji Park in Dadar, both were turned down by the BMC. While the Shinde camp had also applied for permission for the Bandra Kurla Complex ground as an alternative, the Thackeray camp relied on its traditional venue, Shivaji Park. The Thackeray-led faction finally got relief to the Bombay HC which said that the BMC had “misused its power”.
Thackeray-led Shiv Sena also objected to BMC’s decision. do not give relief Company’s employee Rutuja Latke has been removed from service citing technical difficulties. Latke was the Sena’s (UBT) candidate for the crucial Andheri East bypoll held last November. The (UBT) Sena alleged that Chahal, under pressure from CM Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis, was deliberately preventing him from accepting Latke’s resignation. But as was the case with the Dussehra rally, eventually the Bombay High Court cleaned the deck to contest the by-election for Latke, which he won.
(Editing by Amritansh Arora)