5 in fray for mayor's post, 6 for deputy mayor in Nagpur

Nagpur, Feb 28 (UNI) Five candidates are in the fray for the post of mayor and six for deputy mayor in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).

The deadline for filing of nominations ended today. A total of 54 candidates are in the fray for the 16 standing committee seats. The elections are slated for March 5.

The five candidates in the fray for the mayoral election include three of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and one each of the Congress and the Republican Party of India (RPI).

The six candidates who have filed their nominations for deputy mayor include three of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and one each of the Congress, the Shiv Sena and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The candidates for the post of mayor are Devrao Umredkar, Maya Iwnate and Vilas Parate (all BJP), Sindhu Uike (Congress) and Deepak Pendam (RPI). The candidates for the post of deputy mayor are Kameel Ansari, Nitish Gwalbanshi and Rajesh Mate (all NCP), Jayamala Barapatre (Congress), Kishore Kumeria (Shiv Sena) and Habeeb Ur Ansari (BSP).

The post of mayor in NMC is reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST), while that of deputy mayor is open in Nagpur. The party-wise strength in the general body of NMC is BJP 56, Shiv Sena 7, Congress 33, NCP 8, BSP 5, RJD 3, MNS 2, Independents 10 and others 11. The present strength of the house is 135, with one vacancy, as the election to one ward in the February 1 civic polls was countermanded after the death of the NCP candidate there.

UNI