Pune, Apr 16 (PTI) A sharp altercation broke out between two women leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inside the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) headquarters over an upcoming hostel for women, forcing the security personnel to step in to control the situation.
The incident, which involved sitting corporator Rohini Chimate and former corporator Rajshree Kale, took place on Wednesday. A video of the incident later surfaced on social media and went viral.
According to the PMC officials, the civic body is developing a residential hostel for women belonging to tribal communities in Baner area of the city.
Around 80 per cent of the work has been completed and a fresh tender of Rs 3 crore has been issued to carry out the remaining work.
The confrontation occurred during a meeting called by the PMC’s building department to review the work. Kale, who said has been associated with the initiative for several years, attended the meeting along with Chimate.
An argument suddenly broke out between Chimate and Kale, and intensified quickly, with both of them levelling allegations against each other. As the war of words escalated, PMC’s security personnel had to step to pacify them.
Talking to PTI about the incident, Chimate said that being a local corporator, she had gone to the meeting called by the building department as she wanted to take the follow up of the project.
“The work of the hostel is in the final phase and I had gone to PMC’s building department to take the follow up and expedite the work. However the former corporator said since has been following up with the progress of the work, she will continue to do it and asked me to stay away from it,” she said.
She accused Kale of using derogatory language and confronted her.
Kale, however, claimed that a new contractor has been appointed by the current corporator (Chimate) to carry out work at the hostel, and that the work was of substandard quality.
“I only flagged the quality of work being carried out by the contractor. Upon my objections, she (Chimate) used intimidating language and said now she is the corporator and the project will be looked after her, and asked me to stay away from it,” she said.
The altercation quickly spread over the social media drawing sharp reactions.
In a post on X, activist Vijay Kumbhar said BJP’s women corporators clash inside PMC over “percentage cuts”.
“Heated argument between ex and current BJP women corporators, in the presence of a contractor, over Baner tribal girls’ hostel project turns chaotic – video goes viral as Rs 3 crore tender raises fresh transparency concerns,” he said in the post. PTI SPK NP
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