Pune mayor may have to hang up her hat early as BJP may shorten tenure to allow more faces

As per the Municipal Corporation Act of 1888, the tenure of the mayor and the deputy mayor shall be of two and a half years but BJP is planning to give more members the chance to hold the post by giving a 15-month duration to each office-bearer.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to follow the pattern regarding tenure of mayor and deputy mayor implemented by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress when they were running the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations.

Mukta Tilak - Pune mayor from BJP and three-time corporator and relative of Lokmanya Tilak. (HT FILE PHOTO)

As per the Municipal Corporation Act of 1888, the tenure of the mayor and the deputy mayor shall be of two and a half years but BJP is planning to give more members the chance to hold the post by giving a 15-month duration to each office-bearer.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, BJP’s state unit president Raosaheb Danve said, “BJP plans to give two persons the post by dividing the tenure into two durations of 15-month each.”

Danve declined to comment on Mukta Tilak’s completion of full two and a half years as Pune mayor but stated that the party will use different formula in each municipal corporation. He agreed that giving more members the opportunity to lead the mayor’s office will help them prove their capabilities.

BJP is the ruling party in many municipal corporations in the state and the party state unit will take the final call on tenure of mayor and deputy mayor.

Many senior party members are said to have already started lobbying for these posts even as the mayoral post is reserved for women from open category.

NCP, 5 YEARS, 4 MAYORS

NCP followed the 15-month tenure in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations. It had four mayors in five years of its ruling the civic bodies. NCP had Vaishali Bankar, Chanchala Kodre, Dattatray Dhankawade and Prashant Jagtap as mayors during this period.