Mumbai: In a major jolt to the Congress, the grand old party suffered a defeat in the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC) mayoral elections despite having a comfortable majority.
As many as 18 corporators defied the whip and voted against the party candidate, leading to a local outfit, Konark Vikas Aghadi (KVA), emerging victorious with the help of the BJP.
The KVA-BJP front won both the mayor and deputy mayor’s post on Thursday with a margin of 49-41 votes.The KVA and the BJP had joined hands to contest the mayoral polls. The front had fielded Pratibha Patil for the top post, while Congress-Shiv Sena and allied parties had named Rishika Raka.
During the election, Ms Patil bagged 49 votes, while Ms Raka managed to get only 41 votes. Ms Patil is the eighth mayor of the civic body. She will be 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 Bala Choudhary of the Shiv Sena, who received only 41 votes.
The result came as a jolt to the Congress as in the 90-member House, it enjoys a clear majority with 47 seats, followed by BJP (20), Shiv Sena (12), Konark Vikas Aghadi (nine) and Samajwadi Party (two).
Taking cognisance of the defeat, the local Congress leadership has initiated the process of disqualification against the rebel corporators. The state regional Congress committee has issued a show-cause notice to Shoaib Ashfaq Guddu, the president of Bhiwandi city Congress committee.
Mr Guddu has been asked to submit his explanation within three days, said Ganesh Patil, the general secretary of regional Congress committee.
Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation is a civic body formed after dissolution of Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Council into Corporation by an act of Government Of Maharashtra in 2002 to administer the township of Bhiwandi.
