Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Manjusha Nagpure was elected unopposed as mayor of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Monday, while RPI (A) leader Parshuram Wadekar became deputy mayor.
NCP's Shital Sawant and Congress leader Ashwini Landge withdrew from the mayoral contest, while NCP corporator Dattatray Bahirat and Congress’s Sahil Kedari pulled out of the deputy mayoral race, paving the way for unopposed elections. Nagpure, a corporator from the Sinhagad area, has been closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
She holds a postgraduate degree in management. RPI (A) leader Wadekar, who contested last month's civic polls on a ticket of ally BJP from the Bopodi area, had filed his nomination for the post of deputy mayor.
In the 165-member PMC, the BJP won 119 seats, while Ajit Pawar's NCP and Sharad Pawar-headed NCP(SP) together secured 30 seats. The Congress won 15 seats, and its ally Shiv Sena (UBT) managed just one.
Union Minister and Pune Lok Sabha MP Murlidhar Mohol said he is thankful to the people for electing the BJP with a majority in the city civic body.
"As a result, today, our corporators Nagpure and Wadekar were elected unopposed as mayor and deputy mayor," he told reporters in Pune.