Losers vie for nominated corporators’ post

Prominent city politicians, who failed to win the recent polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, are now in the running for five seats as nominated corporators — their final chance to make it to the BMC's decision-making general body.

After the new council gathers to elect the mayor and deputy mayor, the civic body will also select five members as nominated corporators. These candidates are picked by parties though the practice of nominating members was initiated in 1997 with the aim of nominating consensus candidates who are experts in various fields.

The five nominated corporators' seats are divided among the major parties with maximum number of elected corporators. The Shiv Sena is to get two seats while the BJP, Congress and MNS will get one seat each. With the NCP's strength depleted and the MNS emerging as having more elected corporators, the Congress's ally will not be able to nominate a corporator.

Shiv Sena corporator and leader of the council, Sunil Prabhu, said: "The candidates for nominated corporator will be decided by the party chiefs and could be anyone who has either lost the election or was denied a ticket."

Senior party leaders said the likely contenders are heavyweights who lost the polls, including Prabhakar Shinde and Rajul Patel, among others in the Shiv Sena. While Shinde is a three-time corporator, former Standing Committee chairman and former leader of the council, Patel has a strong presence among women and was the head of the health committee.

According to a senior Shiv Sena corporator, outgoing corporator Mangesh Satamkar also stands a strong chance. He was refused a ticket from ward 169, which was given to outgoing mayor Shraddha Jadhav. "He remained loyal to the party rather than contesting on his own," he said. Satamkar, who had earlier threatened to quit and fight against Jadhav as an Independent candidate, later decided to withdraw his nomination at the behest of Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

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