Kolhapur parties finalise group leaders in civic body ahead of mayoral election

Kolhapur: The mayoral election to pick the mayor, deputy mayor and standing committee chairman for Kolhapur Municipal Corporation will take place on Feb 6.The Mahayuti parties, who have a majority in the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation, are likely to come to a formula for sharing the posts for 15 months each. With this formula, BJP will get two terms, and Shiv Sena will get two terms. Whoever gets the mayor's post will be given the post of standing committee chairman, while the post of deputy mayor will be given to an ally. The final decision on this will be made in the meeting of Mahayuti politicians.Meanwhile, Congress corporator Indrajit Bondre was elected the group leader of the party inthe Kolhapur Municipal Corporation. Bondre won from Ward 8. His mother, Shobha Bondre, previously held the post of mayor.A group of Congress corporators was registered on Tuesday in the divisional commissioner's office in Pune, as per Rule 3 of the Maharashtra Local Authority Member Qualification Rules, 1987. At this time, Bondre was unanimously elected the Congress group leader. The group was registered in the presence of divisional commissioner Dr Chandrakant Pulkundwar, joint commissioner Chandrakant Khose, and deputy commissioner Pratibha Patil.Bondre said, "With my work, I will prove my worth as Congress group leader. We will definitely cooperate with the administration and the ruling party for the development of Kolhapur. But wherever wrongdoings occur, there will be strong opposition. Our voice will always be loud to provide basic facilities to the common Kolhapur resident. We will play our role as a capable opposition party."The BJP higher authority from Mumbai finalised the name of BJP corporator Murlidhar Pandurang Jadhav as their party group leader in KMC. BJP state president Ravindra Chavan announced Jadhav's name. Jadhav was elected from Ward 16 in the recent municipal elections. Jadhav worked as a corporator, opposition leader and standing committee chairman, and was elected for the third time as a corporator.Earlier, Shiv Sena corporator Sharangdhar Deshmukh was elected as group leader of Shiv Sena, whereas NCP corporator Adil Faras was elected as group leader for NCP in Kolhapur Municipal Corporation.