Sena’s Shewale elected unopposed as chairman of Malegaon APMC

Nashik: Chandrakant Shewale of the Shiv Sena-backed panel was elected unopposed as the new chairman of the Malegaon APMC on Monday. The post was earlier held by Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Advay Hiray, who was disqualified in Dec last year. Aruna Sonajkar of Sena was also elected unopposed as the deputy chairman of the Malegaon APMC. No one from Sena (UBT) filed a nomination for the election to the two posts. The winning panel is backed by supporters of Sena minister Dada Bhuse.Advay did not attend the monthly APMC meetings for seven consecutive months in 2023-24 as he was in jail in the alleged NDCC Bank loan fraud case. He was, hence, disqualified from the post by the deputy district registrar (co-op) as per the norms. Deputy chairman Vinod Chavan also resigned after the disqualification of Hiray. In April 2023, the UBT-backed panel had emerged victorious, winning 14 of the total 18 seats of the director under the leadership of Hiray, while a panel of Bhuse supporters had won three seats. A supporter of Bandu Bachhav had won one seat. After Hiray was disqualified as the director, the strength of the UBT-backed panel reduced to 13. Thereafter, 10 of the 13 directors of the UBT-backed panel joined the Sena-backed panel, but three remained with the UBT. On the day of election on Monday, the three remaining directors of the UBT-backed panel remained absent.