Bhiwandi: In a setback to the BJP, its rebel corporator Narayan Chaudhary who broke away from the party along with five other corporators and aligned with the Congress-led ‘Bhiwandi Secular Front’ was on Friday elected mayor of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC). Contesting as mayoral candidate of the front, which included Congress with its 30 corporators and NCP (SP) with 12, Chaudhary got 48 votes in a House of 90 effectively reduced on Friday to 89 with one corporator abstaining. The BJP’s nominee Sneha Mehul Patil got 16 votes, while Vilas Patil of the Konark Vikas Aghadi (KVA) polled 25 votes. Congress’ Tariq Momin was elected deputy mayor; he got 43 votes. Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan said action would be taken against Chaudhary and the other corporators who had allegedly defied the party whip in the mayoral polls. In the Jan 15 civic elections, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party with 30 seats, followed by BJP (22), Shiv Sena (12), NCP-SP (12), SP (6), KVA (4), Bhiwandi Vikas Aghadi (3) and one independent. The Shiv Sena did not go with the BJP for the mayoral election. While the BJP initially announced that Chaudhary would be its mayoral candidate, it later replaced him with Sneha Patil, resulting in Chaudhary’s rebellion and his joining hands with Cong-NCP (SP), who agreed to field him as the mayoral candidate of the ‘secular front.’ Interestingly, while the ‘Bhiwandi Secular Front’ secured 48 votes in the mayoral contest, with six of BJP’s rebel corporators including Chaudhary voting for it, the Congress won the deputy mayor’s post with 43 votes. The dispute between BJP and the Shinde Sena also worked in favour of the Congress-led front in the deputy mayor’s election as the presence of three candidates worked to the Congress’ advantage.
