Shiv Sena, Congress candidates file nominations for mayoral polls,latest election news 2014, Political News 2014 updates
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- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 21:03
Shiv Sena, Congress candidates file nominations for mayoral polls
With the mayoral election scheduled on September 9, candidates from the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance as well as the Congress filed their nominations at the civic headquarters Friday. While Shiv Sena has fielded Snehal Ambekar, corporator from the G-South ward (Parel), main opposition Congress has named Dr Priyatama Sawant, corporator from the H-East ward (Bandra).
A Shiv Sainik for the last 18 years, Ambekar was introduced to politics by her husband Suryakant, an active member of Sena. Though elected as a councillor for the first time from Parel in 2012, Ambekar has no prior administrative experience.
Data available from Praja, an organisation working towards better governance and increasing accountability of the elected representative in the city, reveals that she has hardly asked any questions in the general body meetings held at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). She has been ranked at 44 of the 227 councillors in the city by Praja in their 2013 report.
“My main priority will be to work towards education, health and providing clean water in the city. I would also like to build more toilets for women in the city and work towards creating mahila bachat ghats (women self-help groups),” said Ambekar.
Congress candidate Sawant has been in active politics for the last 15 years.
A general physician who graduated from the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in 1996, Sawant started off as a taluka president of the Mahila Congress before graduating to become a councillor from Kherwadi. As per Praja data, Sawant has asked only 14 questions related to community welfare, education and civic issues in the last one year in the general body meeting of the civic body. She has been ranked at 54 by Praja in 2013.
If elected, Sawant wants to solve Mumbai’s perennial issue of roads and drainage, apart from working towards womens’ development. With the current mayor’s tenure ending on September 8, the state government, through a lottery system, had reserved the seat for the next mayor for a woman from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. Subsequently, Shiv Sena fielded three names: Ambekar, Bharti Bhavdane and Yamini Jadhav.
Shiv Sena also named Alka Kelkar for the post of deputy mayor, currently held by Mohan Mithbavkar. The Congress named Chandan Sharma from its party for the same post, the elections for which will be held at the civic headquarters on Tuesday.