NCP candidate Mohansingh Rajpal was elected as the mayor of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday.
Mr. Rajpal defeated his Shiv Sena rival Deepak Gawde in the election, which also signalled an end of the controversial “Pune Pattern“.
The alliance, known as “Pune Pattern”, had generated political heat during the last mayoral polls when the Congress took strong objection to NCP’s truck with Sena-BJP.
Mr. Rajpal was polled 89 votes against 45 that went in favour of Mr. Gawde. Prasanna Jagtap of Congress was elected deputy mayor as he defeated BJP nominee Vishnu Harihar by 45 votes.
Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena-BJP fronts in the PMC have a strength of 90 and 46 respectively in the 144 member new house. The eight-member MNS group did not cast their votes.
Even as the voting took place on the expected lines, the election formally marked reunion of the allies, NCP and Congress, in the civic body which had witnessed a post-poll alliance between NCP and Saffron brigade after the last elections that threw up a hung house.
It led to acrimony between NCP leader Ajit Pawar, the architect of ‘Pune Pattern” and city Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi.
