Delivering his first speech in the general body meeting, Thakare at the very outset paid obeisance to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and other Sena leaders, but didn't mention any of the BJP leaders. This upset the BJP, as the party has an alliance with the Sena in the corporation.

Though BJP corporators felt the omission wasn't deliberate, they said the speaker should have taken note of the fact that the BJP is the Sena's alliance partner. After the incident, BJP leader in the corporation Gopal Shetty wrote a letter to the speaker and the new mayor Nandu Satam pointing out the omission. When contacted, Shetty said since the two parties have been together in the BMC since 1996, the Sena members should give a thought to thisincident, so that such mistakes aren't repeated.

Shetty has also written in his letter that the omission surely couldn't have been deliberate, but it portrayed a wrong picture of the alliance. Thakare, when contacted, said he hadn't received the letter yet. "I will give a reply to Shetty after reading the letter," he said, clarifying that he didn't purposely leave out the names of BJP leaders. He added there was a lot of confusion and commotion on the day of the first meeting, hence he missed out on the BJP leaders' names.