mayor Datta Dalvi

Jagdish Shetty

Deepak Sawant

Uddhav Thackeray

L to R: Datta Dalvi, Deepak Sawant, Jagdish Shetty

Two party officials, who recorded and then revealed conversations of former, sacked for ‘anti-party activities’.The Shiv Sena has been stung by a phone-tapping operation conducted by its own office bearers. The sting, which allegedly reveals a cash-forposts scam, has resulted in the resignation of former mayor Datta Dalvi and also the sacking of the two Sena men who conducted the sting - for ‘anti-party activities’.In order to conduct the sting,, deputy zonal head of Sena for Mumbai North East, gifted a new phone to Dalvi a few weeks ago, which was fitted with a software that allowed Shetty to listen in on conversations. In some of the conversations, Dalvi is allegedly heard asking for money to dole out plum posts in the party, a Sena functionary told Mirror.All these conversations were handed over to, Sena’s shakha pramukh (zonal head) from Mulund, who then made them public at a party workers meeting last week,” the functionary said.Following the revelations, Shiv Sena chiefsacked both Jagdish Shetty and Deepak Sawant for “anti-party activities”. Dalvi has also been asked to resign and his resignation has been accepted. While Dalvi claimed that he resigned ‘due to personal reasons’, Sena sources said that Uddhav had asked him to step down. The recordings have also been handed over to Uddhav. “In the recordings, you can clearly hear Dalvi asking for money for various things. Sometimes for settling issues and in others he is heard asking for money for appointments to key Sena posts like shakha pramukh. This was quite disturbing and so Uddhavji decided to sack Shetty,” the functionary said.Last week, Sawant called for a meeting of Sena workers and informed them about the recordings. “Sawant has been sacked for antiparty activities. He should have brought the recordings to the party leadership instead of going public with it. So stern action has been taken against him,” the leader said.A senior Sena leader said that such kind of activities was not known in the Sena. “The Sena has always been a strict cadre-based party and these kinds of activities show that there is no fear of action. It’s shocking that phones are being tapped and there is talk of cash for posts. The decision to sack the office bearers was necessary,” the leader said.Sena secretary and Uddhav’s aide Milind Narvekar confirmed to Mirror that Sawant and Shetty have been sacked. “Both of them have been sacked for anti-party activities. Datta Dalvi-ji has resigned on his own citing personal reasons and his resignation has been accepted,” Narvekar said, refusing to share any details of the taped conversations.The party carried out a massive overhaul of its unit in North East Mumbai, and reshuffled many of its office bearers due to the phone tapping controversy. Sena sources said that there was a lot of internal rivalry and infighting between party office bearers and sitting legislators. Former MNS leader Shishir Shinde who joined the Sena recently has been taking over the party’s affairs in North East Mumbai. The reshuffle shows that Shinde will be a key player, a Sena leader said. Dalvi was unavailable for comment.