Kohlapur , MAHARASHTRA :
Kohlapur :
Adil Faras, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator from Barai Mam ward, was on Friday elected as the new chairman of the civic body’s standing committee. Faras defeated Jan Surajya Shakti Party’s (JSSP) Mrudula Purekar by 11 votes.
Of the 16 members in the committee, 15 cast their votes by raising hands while one member — BJP’s Prabha Tipugade — remained absent citing health reasons. Faras got 13 votes while Purekar bagged just two.
At present, Congress and NCP are the ruling parties in the KMC with the support of JSSP and independent corporators. The elections to the civic body are scheduled in October-November this year. Hence, the NCP did not want to give up the chance to head the committee which has significant financial powers.
The run-up to the election turned interesting after the JSSP openly criticised NCP leader and former minister Hasan Mushrif and fielded its candidate against Faras.
Various speculations such as rift between the Congress and NCP came to the fore after Purekar decided to contest the election. The Congress has a majority in the committee with 7 members and votes of the party were decisive. Besides, it was also anticipated that some of the NCP corporators were hoping for a career in the BJP by supporting the JSSP corporator. The JSSP had helped BJP candidate Amal Mahadik in defeating former minister of state and Congress leader Satej Patil in the state assembly elections.
A Congress corporator said on the condition of anonymity, “Though there were speculations about rift between the Congress and NCP, both Patil and Mushrif had an understanding to continue the alliance till the next elections. Besides, the party leaders in the House issued a whip to the corporators to cross-vote which led to the win of Faras.”
For the last two days, both the Congress and NCP took the committee members to unknown place and brought them back to the city only on Friday morning to avoid any horse-trading. Sources said Pureker received her own vote along with that of Sambhaji Jadhav of Shiv Sena.
The election to the post of chairman of the transport committee was stayed by district collector and election monitoring officer Rajaram Mane after independent candidate Prakash Naiknaware opposed the nomination of Congress nominee Ajit Powar. Naiknaware said that Powar cannot contest the election since the corporator proposing his name is co-opted and claimed that the nomination of Powar is illegal.
Since Naiknaware has already moved the district sessions court over the issue, Mane stayed the election till the court issues further orders. The election has been stayed till January 9. Being close to Satej Patil, Powar had an upper hand over Naiknaware.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolhapur / TNN / January 03rd, 2015