Heavyweights lose wards in Pimpri Chinchwad civic body

Some well-known corporators of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) have lost their wards, as these have been reserved for the forthcoming civic polls slated for early next year.

Independent corporator Maruti Bhapkar, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) senior corporator Jagdish Shetty and former mayor Vaishali Ghodekar are among those who have lost their wards.

However, present mayor Yogesh Behl and former mayors Mangala Kadam, Azam Pansare, Aparna Doke and RS Kumar, along with standing committee chairman Suman Pawale, have managed to retain their wards.

The state election commission on Wednesday held a lucky draw to earmark the reserved wards at Ramkrishna More auditorium in Chinchwadgaon. State election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan, additional chief secretary Chand Goyal, municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma and additional commissioner Prakash Kadam were present.

In the forthcoming polls, the voters would elect 128 corporators, two each from 64 wards. In the last elections, the strength of the corporators was 105. Fifty per cent of 128 corporators would be women.

The maps of new ward limits for 2012 municipal elections were also displayed.

While the Ramkrishna More auditorium ward has the highest number of electorate, Charholi ward has the least number of voters.

In the restructuring of wards, 18 seats have been reserved for Scheduled Castes and three for Scheduled Tribes.