Five BJP women corporators emerge as frontrunners in race for Mumbai mayor’s post

Five corporators from the BJP have emerged as frontrunners in the election to the post of the mayor of Mumbai, party sources said here on Friday after the reservation lottery drawn on Thursday gave an opportunity to women from the general category to be mayors.

No party has crossed the majority mark of 114 wards in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. But the BJP has emerged as the single-largest party, winning 89 out of 227 seats, while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won 29 seats.

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The Shinde-led Sena has already staked claim to the post of the mayor, claiming that its rank and file would like to see a Shiv Sena mayor in Mumbai on the occasion of the birth anniversary of late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray which was celebrated on Friday, January 23.

The five BJP frontrunners are Ritu Tawade, Alka Kerkar, Tejasvi Ghosalkar, Rajshree Shirwadkar and Sheetal Gambhir.

Ritu Tawade, won the municipal corporation election for the second time from Ghatkopar (Ward 132) from a Gujarati-majority area and within the BJP, she is considered a strong contender to be Mayor of Mumbai.

Alka Kerkar, who was elected from Ward 98 (Bandra-Khar-Santacruz West), is all set to serve her fourth term as a corporator. She previously served as a deputy mayor.

Tejasvi Ghosalkar, who was elected from Dahisar with a margin of 10,755 votes, is another potential mayoral candidate. She happens to be the wife of the late Abhishek Ghosalkar and the daughter-in-law of former MLA Vinod Ghosalkar.

Other BJP corporators whose names are being discussed within the party for the post are Rajshree Shirwadkar, known to be an experienced party worker and Sheetal Gambhir who possesses considerable political experience.

Besides Mumbai’s BMC, the BJP and its allies lso scored decisive victories in the municipal corporations in Pune, Thane and Nagpur.

In Pune, the BJP’s frontrunners for the mayor’s post include Varsha Tapkir, who scored a hat-trick winning from Khadakwasla; Swarada Bapat, the daughter-in-law of the late BJP leader Girish Bapat; Ranjana Tilekar, who is mother of MLA Yogesh Tilekar and a five-time corporator; as well as Manjusha Nagpure, who commands considerable weight in the Pune BJP. Also in the race to be Pune’s mayors are BJP’s Mansi Deshpande and Nivedita Ekbote, sources said.

In Thane, a stronghold of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the post is reserved for the Scheduled Castes category. The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won 75 seats in Thane, while the BJP bagged 28 seats. The names of Padma Bhagat, Vanita Ghogre, Vimal Bhoir and Aarti Gaikwad from the Shinde-led Sena are being discussed for the Thane mayor’s post, while the names of Darshana Jankar and Ganesh Kamble are also under consideration, partry sources said.

In Nagpur, where the mayor’s post is reserved for a woman from the general category, BJP’s Shivani Dani Wakhare, Ashwini Jichkar, Vishakha Mohod, Manisha Atkare, Santosh Ladda as well as others are in the race to be Nagpur mayor, sources said.