All political rallies at Shivaji Park

With the Lok Sabha polls less than a month away, all political parties are heading for Shivaji Park, as law bans use of other sites.

With the Lok Sabha polls less than a month away, all political parties are heading for Shivaji Park, as law bans use of other sites.

This time around, with several restrictions on the use of open spaces, it has become the one, and perhaps the only, popular venue to hold public rallies, reports DNA.

With the state election commission directing the municipal corporation to disallow political rallies on public recreation grounds and playgrounds, other popular rally sites, such as Kamgaar Maidan in Parel and Jamboree Maidan in Worli, have become out of bounds for political parties.

The parties have also been hurt by a recent court directive, asking BMC to declare areas within 100 metres of education institutions and hospitals as silence zones.

Nare Park in Parel, Sewree's Prabhodhan Thackeray Udyan, Nardulaa Tank Ground in Prabhadevi, Azad Maidan and Ganesh Maidan in Goregaon are some of the open spaces declared as silence zone, where the court order bans noise pollution. So, no neta would be allowed to belt out rhetoric through public addressal systems in these places.

As Shivaji Park is mentioned as a park in the municipal records, and is yet to be declared a silence zone, political parties are falling over each other to hold rallies there. Shiv Sena, BJP, MNS and BSP have already booked dates for holding meetings at this historic venue.

Congress and NCP are in the process of finalising their dates.

According to civic officials, BJP will be holding its rally at the Dadar ground on April 25; Shiv Sena has obtained permission for April 26, while MNS will be holding the stage there the following day.

A BSP worker told DNA that party chief Mayawati was likely to visit Mumbai on April 8. He added that the party had decided to hold a rally at Shivaji Park the same day.

Going into the battle, all political parties have complained in unison that the ban on the use of recreation grounds/playgrounds for political rallies was a bit too harsh.

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