Pune: The city will finally get its mayor and deputy mayor more than three weeks after the results of the election to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) were declared on Jan 16.Civic officials on Saturday said a special general body meeting of the 165 corporators newly elected from the 41 wards would be conducted on Feb 6 when the voting for the two top posts would be held.A detailed programme pertaining to the election process will be announced in the next few days. PMC tabled a proposal before the Pune divisional commissioner to conduct the election for mayor’s post and it received a go-ahead, an official said.Pune’s mayor post is reserved for women from the general category. A lottery to decide the reservation was held by the state urban development department earlier this week. It is certain that the new mayor will be from BJP, as the party has 119 corporators out of the 165, a clear majority. Sources from BJP said the candidate would be finalised by next week. Besides, it will select the leader of the house in PMC ahead of mayor’s poll.Among the senior BJP corporators in the race for mayor’s post are Varsha Tapkir, Smita Vaste, Manjusha Khardekar and Manjusha Nagpure.A senior member of BJP’s city unit said, “BJP recorded a clear majority in the PMC poll. In 2017, the party won 97 seats, and the tally jumped to 119 this time. Though there are many aspirants for the different posts, including mayor’s, the top leadership will decide the names unanimously. It is likely that the party will give representation from all the areas of the city while picking candidates for various positions.“Sources from BJP said since mayor’s post is allotted to women, many corporators are lobbying for other positions, such as chairpersons and members of the standing committee, the city improvement committee, and the post of deputy mayor. During the previous tenure (2017-2022), BJP shared the post of deputy mayor with its alliance partner RPI (A). No such talks have been held so far this time, the sources said.The NCP camp is also gearing up for various posts in the civic body. Party sources said discussions are underway to decide the party’s leader in the house and also to chalk out a strategy for the election for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor. From NCP, former standing committee chairman Baburao Chandere, Nilesh Nikam, former mayor Vaishali Bankar, and senior corporators Datta Bahirat and Rekha Tingre are among the frontrunners for various posts.Of the 165 newly elected corporators, 54 are in the 41-50 age group and 51 belong to the 31-40 bracket. Put together, corporators from the ‘middle age’ group (31-50 years) constitue more than 60%.Among the 40 newly elected corporators from the 22 areas brought under the PMC limits in the last few years are two former sarpanch and a couple of former zilla parishad members, who won their maiden contest in the civic poll.
