A day after the Shiv Sena went to town about its proposal to develop a public garden-cum-theme park on the 225 acre Mahalaxmi Racecourse land and name it after its late chief Bal Thackeray, the BJP threw its weight behind its long-time saffron alliance partner in its ambitious move.
While announcing its support to the Shiv Sena's proposal, the BJP asked the Mumbai civic administration and the Congress-led DF Government not to renew the 99-year lease of the 225-acre land granted to Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) for the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, which is due for expiry on May 31.
On a day when the two saffron alliance partners decided to set up a coordination committee of its leaders to chalk out a joint strategy for the for the forthcoming lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Maharashtra, leader of the Opposition in the State legislative Council Vinod Tawde of the BJP announced his wholehearted support for the Sena's proposal to set up an international theme park on the Mahalaxmi racecourse land in south-central Mumbai.
"We are all shifting the Mahalaxmi racecourse out of Mumbai. If the Sena goes ahead with its proposal to set up a public garden-cum-theme park along the lines of the one in New York and name it after late Balasaheb, the BJP will wholeheartedly support such a move," Tawde said.
The Sena's proposal to develop a public garden-cum-theme park at Mahalaxmi race course in south-central Mumbai comes in the run-up to the expiry of a 99-year lease of the 225-acre land had been given to Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) for the Mahalaxmi Racecourse.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had way back in 1914 given the 225-acre green space on a lease to the RWITC for 99 years. The lease period expires on May 31, 2013.
In his letter to Kunte, the Mumbai Mayor has asked the BMC not to renew the lease of the 225 acre Mahalaxmi race course land given to RWITC, as it wanted to develop a public garden-cum-theme park there.
On his part, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has said that while his party was all for setting up a public garden-cum-theme park on the Mahalaxmi racecourse, it would be more than happy if the new facility was named after late Balasaheb.
Earlier on Tuesday, senior BJP leaders, including party's deputy leader in lok Sabha Gopinath Munde and State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis, met Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's Bandra residence.
At the meeting, the Sena-BJP leaders decided to set up a six member coordination committee to draw up a joint strategy for the 2014 lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Maharashtra,
From the BJP side, the three members would be Phadnavis, leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse and his counterpart in the Council Vinod Tawde. The Shiv Sena said that it would announce its members at a later date.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde rooted for the abolition of the local Body Tax (lBT) being implemented in many of municipal corporations of the state Maharashtra
"We openly support the traders' association in their protest against lBT. The state government while increasing the VAT by one per cent had stated that there will not be any new levy in Maharashtra. However, the DF government has gone back on its assurance given to the traders in the state," Munde told media persons here.