Pune: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday formally announced the candidature of Mukta tilak — a scion of the Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak family — as mayor for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
BJP Pune unit chief Yogesh Gogawale said the party chose senior Republican Party of India (Athawale) leader Navnath Kamble as it’s deputy mayor candidate.
Ms. Tilak won her fourth successive civic election from the city’s Kasba Peth area. She was long touted as a sure-fire contender for the city’s top post.
This time, the mayoral post in the PMC has been reserved for a woman candidate elected from the open category seat. The new civic body is to be constituted on March 15, with elections for the post of mayor and deputy mayor to be held and concluded on the same day.
The BJP snared 98 of the 162 seats in the PMC, and 77 of the 128 seats in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.
Ms. Tilak, with a strong base in the old Pune area, has been a BJP leader in the PMC since 2009.
The choice of awarding the deputy mayor’s post to Mr. Kamble has come across as a surprise, given the BJP’s fraught relations with their smaller allies, like Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha and Mahadev Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha.
However, unlike Mr. Shetti, who broke with the BJP to ally with the Shiv Sena in the Nashik civic polls, RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale allied with the party in the PMC polls.
The BJP has also named Shrinath Bhimale as the leader of the party in the new civic body.
