BJP’s Kothrud corporator set to become next Pune mayor

Pitted against NCP’s Prakash Kadam, Mohol is likely to have an easy win as the BJP, with its 99 corporators, has a majority in the civic body. There are a total of 164 corporators in the civic body. After the state government declared that the PMC mayor would be from the general category for the next two-and-a-half years, BJP sources said, names of several aspirants, including Hemant Rasane, Dheeraj Ghate, Varsha Tapkir and Manjusha Nagpure, were doing the rounds. The party, however, chose Mohol over others.

According to party sources, Mohol was aspiring to contest the recently concluded Assembly elections from Kothrud seat, but the BJP gave the ticket to the state BJP chief. Patil’s candidature had triggered a lot of dissent among local party workers, who called Patil a “non-Brahmin” and an “outsider”. Patil hails from Kolhapur but contested from Kothrud.

Former legislator Medha Kulkarni, too, had expressed unhappiness after she was denied a ticket. The BJP then had given Mohol the crucial responsibility of coordinating Patil’s election campaign and to get upset (then an ally) Shiv Sena workers to campaign for the BJP candidate. Patil defeated his nearest rival Kishor Shinde of the MNS by 26,000 votes in the election.

Earlier, Mohol was made the chairperson of PMC Standing Committee in 2017-18, soon after the BJP came to power in the civic body for the first time.  While the party declared Mohol’s name for the mayoral post at the last moment, it fielded corporator Saraswati Shendge for the post of deputy mayor on Monday.

The NCP has pitted Chandi Haji Nadaf for the post. Currently, the post of deputy mayor is held by Siddharth Dhende of the RPI (A), an ally of the BJP. According to sources, local RPI(A) workers were miffed after the BJP nominated Shendge for the post. There was a heated argument between RPI(A) leader Parshuram Wadekar and BJP leaders Monday, sources said.