PIMPRI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has given preference to supporters of Bhosari MLA Mahesh Landge while nominating four members for the Standing Committee of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). With this, the party has tried to address the disappointment of the Landge faction, which was angry after a corporator from the faction was not nominated for the post of chairperson of the Standing Committee recently. 

Corporator from Landge faction of BJP Sarika Landge, Yashoda Boinwad, Vikas Dolas and independent Sadhana Malekar, who is also a known supporter of Landge, were elected as new members of the Standing Committee on Tuesday. The election took place to fill the post of five Standing Committee members.

As decided in the beginning, the post of chairperson should have gone to Landge faction as last year, it was with MLA and city unit chief Laxman Jagtap’s supporter. But this time also, Jagtap camp managed to keep the Standing Committee chairperson post with them. Jagtap’s supporter Mamata Gaikwad was nominated for the post. Landge’s supporter Rahul Jadhav and old BJP loyalist Shital Shinde and Vilas Madegiri were considered as front-runners for the post, but in a surprising move, the post went to Jagtap’s supporter Gaikwad. 

Angry with the decision, Landge’s supporter Mayor Nitin Kalje and Rahul Jadhav, who was recently appointed as a member of the Standing Committee, offered their resignation. There were possibilities of cross-voting in the election of Standing Committee chairperson. Against the backdrop of this, Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis called Landge and asked him to toe the party line. 

After this, BJP candidate Mamta Gaikwad was elected without any difficulties, but the Landge faction’s disappointment was not pacified. Despite voting in favour of Gaikwad, Rahul Jadhav continued to offer his resignation. 

To give an opportunity to maximum corporators to serve as chairperson of the committee, BJP is going to replace all its Standing Committee members every year. Hence, BJP asked the remaining four corporators and an independent corporator to step down from the Standing Committee members’ posts. Six of BJP’s corporators were dropped from the panel already in a draw that was conducted after completion of one year. Normally, half of the Standing Committee members retire after completion of two years. But in the first year, half of the members were dropped through the draw. 

Leader of House Eknath Pawar has given names of four new members to Mayor Nitin Kalje. The Landge faction dominates the Standing Committee now.