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Ambitions soar for Mayor's post

It will be a fierce fight for the coveted post in the upcoming civic polls as there is no bar on caste or gender this time

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Against the backdrop of the BMC headquarters, mannequins, which form part of a voting awareness drive, urge citizens to vote on February 21, on Friday
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With the Mayor's post, that was reserved for women five years ago, changed to the open category earlier in February in a lottery for reservation of mayoral posts in 27 municipal corporations, the ambitions of senior corporators from the Shiv Sena and BJP seem to have soared. This has led to supporters of two strong contenders from both parties, Yashodhar Phanse from Shiv Sena and Manoj Kotak from BJP, projecting them as the future Mayor if their party comes to power after the election dust settles.

However, before staking claim to the mayor's post, both Kotak and Phanse will have to face stiff challenges in their own backyard. Phanse will have to face two strong candidates — Congress stalwart Jyotsna Dighe and sitting MLA Bharti Lavekar's nephew Narendra Dabhadkar from the BJP. Kotak will have a face-off with ex-Mayor from Congress RR Singh's son, Dr RR Singh.

Phanse insisted that he was not spreading the word about his mayoral ambitions, and is in the dark about his supporters doing the same. Kotak said he is currently focused on winning the election.

Barring two-and-a-half years when Sunil Prabhu was Mayor (between 2012 - 2014), since 2007, the Mayor's office has been occupied by women corporators from Shiv Sena. The seat was reserved for OBC women candidates between 2007 and 2009, when Shubha Raul was Mayor. From 2009 till 2012, the seat was declared as an open seat, but was reserved for women, and Shraddha Jadhav was the Mayor.

In 2014, after Sunil Prabhu's tenure ended, the seat was again reserved for women from the Scheduled Caste. The Sena chose Snehal Ambekar. "This time around, however, the Mayor's post has been declared open, which gives a chance to a male candidate. The Shiv Sena corporators do not want a woman to occupy the chair if voted to power in majority. But the party may choose a woman candidate for the chair, if it feels fit," said a civic official on condition of anonymity.

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