The elections for the mayoral posts of the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations have become a mere formality as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured landslide victories in both civic bodies.
In the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the BJP emerged as the single-largest party, winning 119 of the 165 seats, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) stood in second position with 27 seats. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, the saffron party has 84 of the 128 corporators, while the NCP has 37 corporators.
The BJP on Tuesday picked Manjusha Nagpure as its mayoral candidate for the PMC, with Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Parshuram Wadekar as deputy mayor. Meanwhile, in PCMC, Ravi Landge was selected as mayor, while Sharmila Babar was chosen as deputy mayor after Veejay Shinde refused to accept the post and walked out of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) building.
As per the draw, the post of mayor in the PMC was reserved for a woman corporator elected from the general category, whereas in the PCMC, the post was open to all. The reservation for the mayor’s post will remain valid for 2.5 years, with another draw scheduled in 2028.
Meanwhile, interestingly, both the mayors of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad were elected unopposed in the civic body elections held on January 15. Nagpure was elected unopposed from Ward No. 35B (Suncity–Manikbaug) in Pune, while Landge was elected unopposed from Ward No. 6B (Dhawade Wasti–Sadguru Nagar) in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Notably, Landge was elected unopposed in the previous corporation election as well.
