BJP-Tararani Aghadi field candidates for mayor and deputy mayor

KOLHAPUR: The Bharatiya Janata Party-Tararani Aghadi has fielded corporators Bhagyashri Shteke and Kamlakar Bhopale against Surmanjiri Latkar and Sanjay Mohite of the Congress and NCP alliance for the respective positions of mayor and deputy mayor of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation.
The election for both the posts will take place on November 19 which will be monitored by district collector Daulat Desai.The party chiefs will issue whip to their corporators to attend and vote for the alliance’s official nominees.
The Kolhapur Municipal Corportation is represented by 81 corporators, out of which 44 belong to Congress and NCP and the BJP-Tararani Aghadi is in the opposition. Four corporators of Shiv Sena are most likely to vote for the Congress-NCP nominees who are expected to win the race for the top posts.
Despite knowing the fact that they lack numbers, the BJP-Tararani Aghadi has fielded its candidates. The leaders of the opposition camp claim that they have been fielding candidates for every election ever since the civic authority went for polls for the first time in 2015.
“We contest election not to give a free pass to the parties ruling the civic body. We have to ensure that no candidate gets elected unopposed. It is a medium through which we can show our presence in the civic body despite lacking numbers to win these posts,” a senior leader of Tararani Aghadi said on the condition of anonymity.
The opposition has 33 corporators on their side. Now, Sena is aligning with Congress and NCP in the state for government formation and therefore the opposition BJP-Tararani Aghadi is not expecting Sena’s support.
According to sources, however, the opposition is eyeing the support of the NCP corporators who are unhappy with the nomination of Latkar. Last time, Latkar was opposed by a faction of NCP which led to the nomination of Madhavi Gavandi. This time, however, leaders have decided to ensure the election of Latkar as the next mayor.
Meanwhile, to avoid any defection, Congress and NCP are likely to take the corporators to an undisclosed location and they will be brought back on November 19.