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BJP corporator Nitin Landge was on Friday elected as the 37th chairman of the standing committee of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. He defeated NCP candidate Pravin Bhalekar by five votes.
Landge is a two-time corporator from Bhosari area. He is the son of former Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Dnyaneshwar Landge, one of the architects of the industrial city.
Friday’s election was held in the civic standing committee hall where IGR Shravan Hardikar presided over as the election officer.
NCP was given time to withdraw its candidate for ensuring unanimous election. However, NCP refused to withdraw from the race.
In the 16-member civic standing committee, Landge secured 10 votes while the NCP candidate secured five. The BJP has a strength of 10 members. It received one extra vote from an independent candidate. However, its own member Ravi Landge abstained from voting. He had resigned as a member of the committee after he was denied the chairman’s post.
BJP House leader Namdev Dhake said efforts were under way to persuade Ravi Landge to withdraw his resignation.
Among others, NCP leaders like Raju Misal, Yogesh Behl, and BJP leaders Seema Salve and Raju Durge congratulated the new committee chairman.
Nitin Landge belongs to Bhosari MLA Mahesh Landge’s camp, and replaces Santosh Londhe, who belonged to Chinchwad MLA Laxman Jagtap’s camp.
Meanwhile, Keshav Gholve, deputy mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad, resigned from his post on Friday. He submitted his resignation to Mayor Usha Dhore citing personal reasons.
Gholve had taken charge in November 2020 after Tushar Hinge resigned from the post. There was no official communication from the BJP about the next deputy mayor.