Siddhivinayak temple MUMBAI: With the assembly polls slated for early November, the state govt on Friday made fresh appointments to the Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust (SSGT). Several Shiv Sena , BJP, and NCP (Ajit Pawar) functionaries have been appointed as office bearers on the SSGT in a bid to accommodate them before elections. BJP functionary Pawan Kumar Tripathi has been made treasurer, while Sena’s Meena Kambli, Rahul Londhe, and Gopal Dalvi were appointed trustees, among others.
Tripathi is known to be BJP’s north Indian and Hindutva face in the city. Along with Tripathi, 10 new appointments were made on SSGT as trustees, including Bhaskar Shetty, Mahesh Mudaliar, Jitendra Raut, Manisha Tupe, Sudarshan Single, and Bhaskar Vichare. Shiv Sena’s Mahim MLA Sada Sarvankar is Chairperson of the prestigious SSGT.
Sarvankar replaced Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray ’s close aide Aadesh Bandekar. Bandekar, who was given a Minister of State (MoS) rank, was appointed in July 2020, and his term had ended in July 2023. The SSGT runs the famous Siddhivinayak temple in Dadar and also operates dialysis centres at affordable rates for patients across the city.
In January this year, the state govt gave MoS rank to Sarvankar and Rs 7500 monthly honorarium, an official car, and fuel costs among other perks and entitlements..
