Mumbai : A first-time Shiv Sena corporator and former LIC officer Snehal Ambekar is all set to be elected the 73rd mayor of Mumbai, while ally BJP’s Alka Kerkar, a former teacher, may be the deputy mayor, officials said here Monday.
The mayoral elections will be held Tuesday as the outgoing mayor Sunil Prabhu completes his two-and-half-year term.
As per new norms, this time the prestigious post is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman candidate who will be the fourth woman to occupy the post in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s 124-year-old history.
Senior Shiv Sena leader Suryakant Ambekar’s wife, 42-year-old Snehal’s election is considered a formality as the ruling alliance (SS-BJP) has a strength of 120 members in the 226-member house.
A senior sales officer with the Life Insurance Corporation of India who was also a social worker, Ambekar has been elected as corporator from Lower Parel area of central Mumbai, her husband’s stronghold.
Congress corporator from Bandra East Priyatama Sawant has also filed a nomination to challenge Ambekar for the top post while the Nationalist Congress Party’s Powai corporator Chandan Sharma will contest the deputy mayor’s post against Kerkar, 62.