IN A major setback to the Congress party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Tuesday, secured the Mayor’s post in Chandrapur Municipal Corporation (CMC) after six corporators from Shiv Sena (UBT ) supported the party, defying the official party line. Sangeeta Khandekar of the BJP was elected Mayor by a margin of just one vote. She defeated Congress’ Vaishali Mahadule.The Deputy Mayor’s post went to Prashant Danav of Shiv Sena (UBT), that too through lucky draw. The Congress had won 27 seats in the 66-member House of CMC. BJP had won 23, Shiv Sena (UBT ) 6, Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksh ( Janvikas Sena) 3, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi 2 and AIMIM, BSP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) had won one seat each. Two Independents had also won.

 

The House required a majority of 34 corporators to gain power. Following theVBA and AIMIM corporators’ stance, this magic number came down to 32. This helped the BJP secure the win. The victory came after six Shiv Sena (UBT) corporators went against clear directions from the party leadership to oppose the BJP. Just an hour before the vote, Shiv Sena(UBT ) spokesperson SanjayRaut had addressed a pressconference in Mumbai andsaid that party chief UddhavThackeray had instructedmembers to sit in the opposition instead of supporting theBJP. However, local leaders inChandrapur went ahead withthe decision to back the BJP Sandeep Girhe, district chief of the Thackeray faction, defended the move and cited a lack of cooperation from the Congress. Under the reported arrangement, the BJP will hold the Mayor’s post for the first 15 months, after which Shiv Sena (UBT) will take over. Shiv Sena (UBT) will hold the Deputy Mayor’s post for the full five-year term and will chair the Standing Committee in the first and fourth year. Total 10 nomination forms were filed for the post of Mayor while 6 were filed for the post of Deputy Mayor. Candidates namely Manasvi Sandeep Girhe from Shiv Sena (UBT), Sangeeta Mangal Bhoyar, Sangeeta Gopalakrishna Amritkar, Sunanda Dilip Dhobe, and Vaishali Ajay Mahadule from the Congress party, and Sangeeta Rajendra Khandekar and Sarika Sachin Sandurkar from the BJP were in the race for the top post. Meanwhile, the 6 papers submitted for Deputy Mayor’s post included two candidates from BJP, 2 from Congress, 1 from Bharatiya Shetkari Kamghar Paksh (Janvikas Sena) and 1 Independent. Within the 15-minute period given for withdrawal of applications, Girhe, Bhoyar, Amritkar, Dhobe and Sandurkar withdrew their forms. Due to this, a direct contest took place between Vaishali Mahadole of the Congress and Sangeeta Khandekar of the BJP. Mahadule got 31 votes while Khandekar polled 32. Interestingly, AIMIM’s Azhar Sheikh remained neutral and did not cast his vote for any party. The two Corporators of VBA remainedabsent for the entire election process.

 

Presiding Officer, Collector Vinay Gowda, Municipal Commissioner Akunuri Naresh, Additional Commissioner Chandan Patil, Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Chidrawar, Municipal Secretary Narendra Bobate, City Engineer Ravindra Hazare, Assistant Commissioner Shubhangi Suryavanshi, as well as officers and employees of Chandrapur Municipal Corporation were present on the occasion. MLA Kishore Jorgewar, MLA Deorao Bhongle, District President of BJP Harish Sharma, District Chief Shivsena (UBT) and other senior leaders of BJP and Shiv Sena reached CMC to congratulate the newly-elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor. 

 

 

The election for Deputy Mayor’s post was conducted in the presence of Presiding Officer and District Collector Vinay Gowda. Independent Prashant Danav, Pradeep Deshmukh from Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Party, Vasant Rajeshwar Deshmukh, Rahul Gendlal Chaudhary from Congress Party, and Sanjay Kancharlawar from the BJP were in the fray. However, Kancharlawar, Deshmukh and Chaudhary withdrew their nomination and the contest was then held between Danav and Deshmukh. Both polled 32 votes each and Danav was elected Deputy Mayor by lucky draw. AIMIM Corporator Sheikh, who had abstained from voting in mayor’s election, voted this time. The two VBA corporators, however, stayed away from the polling process.