BJP's Murlidhar Mohol is new Mayor of Pune

BJP corporator Murlidhar Mohol was on Friday elected as the new Mayor of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

The city's top post had fallen vacant after BJP's Mukta Tilak was elected as an MLA from the Kasba Assembly constituency in the recently-concluded state elections.

The Congress and the NCP had fielded Prakash Kadam as their candidate against BJP's Mohol.

Shiv Sena, which is currently working out modalities with the NCP and Congress to form a government in Maharashtra, voted against Mohol and supported Kadam.

Nonetheless, Mohol won the election by a comfortable margin as the BJP has a clear majority in the civic body.

In the 164-member House, the BJP has 99 corporators.

According to civic officials, Mohol got 97 votes, while Kadam bagged 59 votes.

While five corporators remained absent, three corporators from MNS remained neutral.

Mohol, a corporator from Kothrud, is said to have played a key role in BJP state unit chief Chandrakant Patil's victory from the Kothrud constituency in the recent Assembly polls.