Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar is new chairman of Siddhivinayak Temple

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government has appointed ruling Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar as the new chairman of the prestigious 222-year-old Shri Siddhivinayak Ganpati Temple Trust, Prabhadevi, for a three-year term, officials said here on Tuesday.

Sarvankar, 68, replaces Marathi actor and television star Aadesh C Bandekar, a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, who enjoyed a two-term tenure at the helm of the SSGTT from July 2017-July 2023.

Once a close confidante of Shiv Sena (UBT) President and former CM, Sarvankar, a four-time legislator from Mahim, walked over to the breakaway group after a rebellion led by Shinde in June 2022.

Incidentally, Sarvankar was booked under the Arms Act in March 2023, after bullets were fired from his gun during a Ganeshotsav immersion procession in September 2022, sparking a political ruckus then.

Terming it as an “irony” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray slammed the appointment of Sarvankar, “the traitor MLA who pointed his gun towards devotees and citizens during a Ganpati Bappa procession in Dadar, and used it in the police station.”

“The same person has now been appointed chairman of the Shri Siddhivinayak Ganpati Temple Trust by the Shinde-BJP regime. It is the official policy of the regime to reward the corrupt, the criminals and anti-Maharashtra people with contracts and posts,” he added.

Without naming anyone, Thackeray targeted Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and said that he gave the traitor Sarvankar virtually a clean chit by admitting that a bullet was fired in the police station from his gun and the bullet also belonged to him, but apparently it was not clear who fired it.

“Nonetheless, a person booked under Arms Act, threatening citizens during a festival being made the temple trust chairman is shameful. Ideally the ‘party with a difference’ should have opposed it, but sadly it’s a different party than what we knew,” said Thackeray sharply.

The temple, popular with the high and mighty was consecrated in November 1801, and among its regular devotees are Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh Ambani and his family, plus top state and national political leaders.