KALYAN: The game of one-upmanship between former alliance partners Shiv Sena and BJP saw a road being inaugurated twice in a span of two hours on Monday.
With the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) election nearing, sources said both parties wanted to score brownie points.
On October 6, KDMC had closed the 900m stretch to concretise the F-cabin road and to lay mastic asphalt on the Dharamveer Anand Dighe rail overbridge in Kalyan. Work was completed within 54 days under the supervision of city engineer Sapna Koli.
On learning the road was ready to be opened to the public, local BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad on Sunday declared that since Rs 4.35 crore had been sanctioned for the road work when Devendra Fadnavis was CM, his party would do the honours. But they didn't anticipate the curveball coming their way.
Around 8am on Monday, Sena corporator Dhananjay Borade and functionary Mahesh Gaikwad cut the ribbon, reopened the stretch and gave the credit to Thane guardian minister Eknath Shinde, who is from the Shiv Sena. Soon after, BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad and BJP city president Sanjay More inaugurated the road by cutting a ribbon.
Sharply criticising the Shiv Sena for claiming credit, Gaikwad justified the move to inaugurate the road a second time saying funds were sanctioned because he had followed up on the project when the BJP government was around.
Even as the two parties spar, citizens, who suffered major inconvenience for nearly two months as they had to travel a longer distance to commute from Kalyan west to east, are relieved their woes have ended.