The new mayor and his deputy said they will speed up the metro rail project in the city of Pune and find a solution to the garbage problem and traffic issues among their list of to priorites. Projects like ‘Pune First’ will be designed, they said, and hopefully this will all benefit not just the city itself, but also the tourism industry as well.
Datta Dhankawde of the NCP is the new mayor of Pune City, while Aba Bagul of Congress is his deputy.
Congress corporator Ulhas (Aba) Bagul from Sahakarnagar defeated Bharat Chaudhari, Shiv Sena corporator from Hadapsar by 42 votes. Bagul got the 83 votes against Chaudhari’s 41.
Dhankawde was pitted against Yogesh Tilekar of the BJP. He secured 83 votes as against 41 votes garnered by Tilekar. Dhankawde represents Satara Road while Tilekar is a corporator from Kondhwa.
A total of 137 of the 152 corporators voted in the election conducted during the general body meeting between 11 am and 4 pm. Twenty-eight corporators were absent for the voting.
The house has an NCP-Congress majority. The NCP has 51 corporators while the Congress has 29. Two corporators of the RPI and one independent supported the NCP-Congress combine. The saffron alliance, which includes the BJP (26) and Shiv Sena (15), have 41 votes. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has 28 votes.
