Pune: In a setback to the Nationalist Congress Party in the city, Pune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar on Wednesday quashed the post of newly-elected corporator Kishore Dhankawade after declaring his caste certificate as ‘invalid’.
Mr. Dhankawade, who won from ward no. 39 in the city’s Katraj area, allegedly produced a fake Kunbi-Maratha caste certificate, which led the PMC commissioner to terminate him from the civic body.
Mr. Kumar’s action comes after the Kunbi State Caste Scrutiny Committee concluded last month that the NCP leader had indeed furnished phoney documents thereby misleading election authorities.
This is the first such case in the aftermath of the PMC elections held in February this year. It came to light after city-based activist Mrunal Dhole-Patil raised the issue of politicians submitting fake Kunbi- Maratha caste certificates to avail the benefits of OBC reservation during the high-stakes civic polls.
According to her, there are 17 other corporators besides Mr. Dhankawade who are under scrutiny for having allegedly furnished election authorities with fake caste certificates.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won a massive landslide in the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations in the municipal polls held in February this year to break the decade-long hold of Sharad Pawar’s NCP in the city.
The BJP bagged an unprecedented 98 seats in the PMC. With Mr. Dhankawade’s disqualification, the NCP’s tally now stands reduced to 38 in the 162-seat civic body.
Ms. Dhole-Patil had filed applications in the PMC, PCMC and the Pune Zilla Parishad to secure information on members elected under the OBC reservation.
During previous civic polls, two corporators had lost their membership after they submitted invalid Kunbi- Maratha certificates.
In 2015, Shiv Sena corporator Bharat Chaudhary’s membership was disqualified while in 2013, Kalpana Bahirat of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) who contested from the city’s Mangalwar Peth was likewise removed from her post for submitting a fake caste certificate.
