The 27th mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad will be elected by the newly elected corporators in a special meeting at the PCMC main building on February 6. The deputy mayor will also be elected at the meeting. Members of the standing committee will also be appointed on the same day.
The post of Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor this time has been reserved for general category candidates. The directives for holding the elections were issued by divisional commissioner Dr Chandrakant Pulkundwar on Saturday. Cooperative commissioner Deepak Taware will chair the meeting as the representative of the divisional commissioner, municipal commissioner Shravan Hardikar said.
The printed forms for nomination of mayor and deputy mayor will be available at the municipal clerk’s office on the third floor of the main administrative building during office hours, Hardikar said.
The date for submitting nominations is scheduled for February 2 between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday.
Municipal secretary Mukesh Kolap said nominations will be accepted only within the deadline stipulated in his office.
As per the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 16 members of the standing committee will also be appointed on the same day, besides 9 members of five special committees.
Appointments to these committees will be based on the proportional representation of the political parties or groups. For the Women and Child Welfare Committee, at least 75% of the members will be appointed from among the corporators, Gholap said.
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In the recently held civic elections, the BJP returned to power with a brute majority in the PCMC. It will have 84 corporations of its own in addition to an independent corporation that was supported by the party during the campaign. The PNC will sit in opposition with 37 corporations. The Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde It will have 6 corporations.
Although there are several aspirants for the mayoral posts, the Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of the BJP said it has not taken a decision yet. “We haven’t even discussed the names. We will do it on Sunday or Tuesday,” the BJP’s Chinchwad MLA Shankar Jagtap told The Associated Press. indian express.
Jagtap said irrespective of whether the mayoral candidate is from Chinchwad, Bhosari or Pimpri assembly constituencies, the decision will be taken by the party’s central committee. “We will then send the name to the state party leadership for final approval,” Jagtap said. Another party MLA Mahesh Landge is said to be out of office. He will play a key role in the mayor’s election.
BJP leaders said there are 85 corporators and it will be difficult to take a decision. “Since the seat is for a general category candidate, anyone can claim it. It will be a difficult decision to take,” said a party leader.
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Among the key names doing the rounds are that of BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Shatrughan Kate and two other party corporators including Rahul Kalate, Ravi Landge and Sheetal Shinde.
Kate said she missed the chance to become mayor twice and therefore hoped the party would now give her the nod.
26 mayors so far
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation came into existence in 1982. The first general elections were held in 1986. The first mayor was also elected in the same year. Dnyaneshwar Landge, the “gaonwallah” or son of the soil, was the first mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad during the first five years of Congress rule. He was elected for a period of one year. His son Nitin Landge became the PCMC standing committee president during the BJP government from 2017 to 2022. The Landges are a prominent family from the Bhosari area.
Bhiku Wahgere-Patil was the second mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad in 1987. He hailed from Pimprigaon. His son, Sanjog Waghere, later became mayor in 1995-96. They are the only father-son duo to become mayors in the history of PCMC.
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Vilas Lande, also from Bhosari, became mayor in 1993-94. His wife, Mohini Lande, was elected mayor. She served a two-and-a-half-year term starting in 2012. The Landes are the only couple to become mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Tatya Kadam of Akurdi-Sambhajinagar area became mayor in 1988-89. Her sister-in-law Mangala Kadam became mayor from 2005 to 2007.
Mangala Kadam is considered the most popular mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad, followed by Yogesh Behl. Mangala Kadam had reportedly attended 18,000 functions, events and public meetings during his tenure. “I had a very busy mayoral tenure. There were dozens of public functions to attend. I made it a point not to disappoint anyone,” Kadam told this newspaper today.
Behl, a Punjabi, known for speaking impeccable Marathi, was also the much sought after mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad. His close association with Ajit Pawar also enhanced his reputation as a top politician of the industrial city.
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Of the 26 mayors Pimpri-Chinchwad has had so far, at least seven had two-and-a-half-year terms, while the rest only had one. Of the 26, one was Muslim in Azam Pansare, one Tamil in Pradhikaran’s RS Kumar, one Punjabi, one of them was from the ST Shakuntala Darade community and two from the OBC community – Kavichand Bhat and Vaishali Ghodekar; Otherwise, most of the mayors were from the Maratha community.
Anita Pharande of Chinchwad was the first female mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad. She became mayor in 1997-98.
Babu Nair, a Congress leader, said: “From 1986 to 1999, all the mayors belonged to the Congress. After that, the NCP and the BJP had their mayors.”
Toughest mayor poll
Nair said most mayoral elections were unopposed. “The first election held in 1986 was the toughest, in which Dnyaneshwar Landge fought against Sopanrao Bhoir. I remember Landge won by just a couple of votes,” Nair said.
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Nair said even the elections of Kavichand Bhat and Prabhakar Sathe as mayors were a close contest. “Otherwise, most of the elections were unopposed as parties like the NCP and the BJP enjoyed a brute majority in the PCMC House,” he said.
Until 1997, mayoral elections were carried out through the voting system. “After that, the mayor has been elected by a show of hands by the corporations,” he said.