MNS won't allow Mayor's bungalow at Shivaji Park gymkhana: Raj

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray said Thursday that his party will not allow the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) to raze the civic gymkhana at Shivaji Park to make way for a new Mayor's bungalow.

Thackeray met BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta in this regard earlier in the day.

He also reiterated his opposition to the plan to build a memorial of late Shiv Sena chief and his uncle Bal Thackeray at the site of the existing Mayor's bungalow, saying it will set a wrong precedent.

The MNS chief said it was "most unfortunate" that the authorities could not find any other land for the memorial of the late leader "who toiled for installing a Shiv Sena Mayor" in the existing bungalow.

According to media reports, plans are afoot to construct memorial of the Sena founder at the site of the existing sea-facing Mayor's bungalow. The BMC is reportedly planning to build a new Mayor's bungalow on a neighbouring plot where a civic gymkhana (sports club) stands.

"I told the commissioner that we will not allow construction of Mayor's bungalow there at any cost. It will be used only for sports activities," Thackeray told reporters.

The existing Mayor's bungalow is being "usurped" in the name of Bal Thackeray, he said, in apparent swipe at the present Shiv Sena leadership.

"We are setting a wrong precedent by doing such things," Thackeray added.