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Manjusha Nagpure files nomination for Pune mayor, Parshuram Wadekar as deputy
The formal election for the mayor’s post will be held on February 9, but it is largely a formality since the BJP holds 119 seats in the 165-seat corporation
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Manjusha Nagpure is set to be the next Pune mayor, with Parshuram Wadekar as the deputy mayor, people familiar with the matter said after they filed their nomination papers on Tuesday.
The formal election for the mayor’s post will be held on February 9, but it is largely a formality since the BJP holds 119 seats in the 165-seat Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, which have fielded candidates, hold 27 and 15 seats, respectively.
Nagpure, a long-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker, was elected unopposed from the Manikbaug–Sinhgad Road area in last month’s civic polls. Nagpure, who holds an M.Com and MBA degrees, previously worked in the IT sector before entering politics. She won her first election to the civic body in 2012 and was re-elected in 2017.
“The party has given me a big opportunity, and I am thankful for it. I am aware that the mayor’s post is prestigious and not merely ceremonial, but one that demands work. I will try to do justice to this responsibility,” Nagpure said after filing her nomination paper.
Wadekar, who has been nominated for the deputy mayor’s post, said he was grateful to the BJP for giving the Republican Party of India (Athawale) a chance. “In the previous term, my wife Sunita was deputy mayor, and now I have been given the same responsibility. It is rare for the post to come to the same family twice,” he said.
In a post on X, Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale thanked Fadnavis and Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil for its decision to back Wadekar for the post of deputy mayor.
Athawale recalled that he had recently reached out to Chandrakant Patil to make the point that his party’s strength was not limited to just five corporators, and that the decisive support of the Dalit and underprivileged communities in Pune was crucial for the Mahayuti’s victory. “Today, this friendship has been honoured by giving the deputy mayor’s post to the loyal RPI leader Parshuram Wadekar,” he said.
