Over 2 dozen political heirs in fray for Nashik Municipal Corporation elections

Nashik: More than 25 relatives of prominent politicians are contesting the Jan 15 Nashik Municipal Corporation elections, making the civic polls a major display of political legacy across the city.The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections are being held for 122 seats across 31 wards in the city, of which around 20% of the total seats are being contested by the relatives of various political functionaries.The list includes former city mayor Satish Kulkarni's daughter, Sandhya Kulkarni, former BJP deputy mayor Bhikubai Bagul's grandson and BJP leader Sunil Bagul's son, Manish Bagul, and former corporator Sudhakar Badgujar's son, Deepak Badgujar. Former corporator Uddhav Nimse's son, Siddhesh Nimse, is also contesting.Hitesh Wagh, the wife of former mayor Yatin Wagh, is in the fray from Ward 13(B) in Nashik East. Yatin Wagh, MNS's first mayor between 2012 and 2017, recently joined BJP but fielded his wife for the polls.A notable contest is in Ward 9(D) in Cidco, where Prem Patil, the son of former mayor Dashrath Patil, is contesting on a Shiv Sena ticket, while his cousin Amol Patil, the son of former corporator Dinkar Patil, is the BJP candidate. The ward is set to see a direct face-off between the cousins.Other political heirs include Nupur Savji, the daughter of BJP state spokesperson Laxman Savji, contesting from Ward 12(C). Aditi Pande, the daughter-in-law of former mayor Vinayak Pande, is contesting from Ward 13, where Rashmi Bhosle, the wife of former MLA Sachin Bhosle, and Mayuri Pawar, the wife of MNS district chief Ankush Pawar, are also in the race.In other wards, Yogesh (Munna) Hiray, the brother-in-law of sitting BJP MLA Seema Hiray, is contesting from Ward 7(D). Deepali Gite, the wife of former NMC standing committee chairman Ganesh Gite, is contesting from Ward 1(C). Seema Thakre, the wife of NCP Nashik city chief Ranjan Thakre, is contesting from Ward 12(B).Nilam Naresh Patil, the daughter-in-law of former Congress corporator late Vimal Patil, is contesting from Ward 5(C) in Panchavati. In the same division, former BJP corporator Uddhav Nimse has fielded his son Siddhesh from Ward 2.The list also includes Bharti Dhivare, the wife of former corporator Ravindra Dhivare, contesting from Ward 9(A), and Kalpana Chumbhale, the wife of Shivaji Chumbhale, contesting from Ward 24(C).