Thane: In a setback to the Congress party, which enjoys a clear majority in Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC), Konark Vikas Aghadi, in alliance with BJP, bagged the mayoral post of Bhiwandi Nizampura Municipal Corporation on Thursday.
The BJP-KVA alliance's candidate Pratibha Vilas Patil defeated Congress candidate Rishika Pradeep Raka. While Pratibha Patil got 49 votes, Congress' Rishika Raka received 41 votes.
Apart from BJP, Konark Vikas Aghadi candidate was backed by RPI and Samajwadi Party. Eighteen rebel Congress corporators also extended support to Konark Vikas Aghadi.
The KVA-BJP front also won the Deputy Mayor's election in a similar manner.
In the 90-member House, the Congress enjoyed a clear majority with 47 seats, followed by BJP (20), Shiv Sena (12), Konark Vikas Aghadi (nine) and Samajwadi Party (two).
Patil is the eighth mayor of this civic body. She is holding the post for the second time.
Similarly, in the election for the deputy mayor's post, the Konark-BJP front nominee, Imran Khan, bagged 49 votes, defeating his only rival Bala Choudhary of the Shiv Sena, who got only 41 votes.
Maharashtra PCC has asked its Bhiwandi unit to initiate action against 18 of its corporators who voted against the party line.
