Mukari Shetty Algude has rebelled against the official candidate due to ‘shady’ background.
A day before the newly elected general body of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) votes to elect the city’s mayor and deputy mayor, rebel Congress candidate Mukari Shetty Algude and Shivajinagar MLA Vinayak Nimhan, who has supported his candidature, refused to reveal their strategy.
Algude has rebelled against the official party candidate for the post of deputy mayor, Deepak Mankar. Mankar, who has been acquitted in six of the 12 land-grabbing cases against him, is a close aide of tainted MP Suresh Kalmadi.
Congress MLA Vinayak Nimhan has supported Algude saying the party has lost its grip over the city due to the local leadership and a candidate with a clean background must be supported.
Nimhan, who is a confidant of Congress minister Narayan Rane, met chief minister Prithviraj Chavan along with Algude on Tuesday.
However, when contacted, he refused to elaborate on what happened in the meeting.
“The chief minister will discuss the issue with the state Congress committee chief Manikrao Thakre. By tomorrow, we will get to know what Thakre and Chavan have to say,” he said.
Algude too was tight-lipped about the outcome of the meeting. He said, “I filed my nomination because able corporators were refused a chance to prove themselves. I am in no mood to withdraw it.”
However, when asked what he would do if the chief minister asked him to withdraw, he said, “That would depend on what the chief minister has to say on the issue I have raised.”
When asked how he plans to get elected, if the Congress issued a whip, he claimed that some corporators from the opposition parties were supporting him.
The stance of Algude and Nimhan has the local leadership worried. Congress party leader Arvind Shinde said that the party would be issuing a whip to ensure that Mankar wins.
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