Mumbai: Four seats should be reserved for students in state-run BEST buses running across Mumbai, a social organization headed by son of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane demanded on Monday.

Noting that Shiv Sena's youth wing chief Aditya Thackeray met Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in December last year and made a strong plea for two separate compartments - one for students and the other for elderly people across suburban trains in Mumbai, the Swabhiman Sangathana students' wing president Prathamesh Kolumkar claimed Thackeray conveniently ignored the students' plight in the BEST buses.

"With the BMC polls next year and students' population forming a solid vote bank, Shiv Sena's youth wing has desperately jumped on to the bandwagon without analyzing the consequences of their act on the innocents and taking undue advantage of their political affiliations," Sangathana president Nitesh Rane said.

Releasing copies of a letter sent to BEST chairman Sanjay Potnis, Kolumkar mentioned the troubles students face while traveling on the crowded BEST buses.

"We understand the circumstances in which the students have to travel by local buses. Potnis has accepted our demand," he said, adding they would wait for a week and then see how the measure was being implemented. IANS