Mayor quits to pave way for BJP man

AURANGABAD

: City mayor

Trymbak Tupe

of Shiv Sena and deputy mayor Pramod Rathod of BJP resigned on Wednesday, following a 19-month stint, to pave the way for new incumbents for the remaining 11-month term.

The new incumbent, a BJP nominee, will become mayor while the deputy mayor will be from Shiv Sena.

The deputy mayor submitted his resignation to Tupe who accepted it. Later, Tupe requested the senior most corporator from Harsul area, Bansi Jadhav, to take his seat, offered him his gown and stepped down while submitting his resignation.

The municipal administration will send a report to the divisional commissioner, who in turn will issue a seven-day notice for the election of mayor and declare the election programme accordingly.

Keeping many factions in the parties guessing, Shiv Sena and BJP finalized the names of Tupe and Rathod for mayor and deputy mayor. The mayoral elections were held on April 29, 2015 while the AMC general body polls were held on April 22.

As per a pre-poll arrangement, the Sena mayor had to be in office for one-and-a-half years and the remaining one-year term would go to BJP.

However, the BJP sources admitted that Tupe was reluctant to submit his resignation as he had filed 10 special leave petitions (SLPs) in the Supreme Court to save the the general body-approved controversial draft development plan.

The plan has already been quashed and set aside by the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court. Tupe has challenged the HC verdict by filing these SLPs.

Tupe feared that if the new incumbent refused to toe his line in the Supreme Court, he would lose face among his supporters. However, it is not yet clear whether the new BJP mayor would pursue Tupe’s matter in the Supreme Court, said a BJP leader.