Pune: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday nominated corporator Shrinath Bhimale for the post of chairman of the PMC standing committee.The election for the chairman post is scheduled next week, and Bhimale is expected to be elected to the post as the party holds a two-thirds majority in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) after the recently concluded civic polls.Bhimale, who won from the Mukundnagar-Salisbury Park ward, has been a part of the standing committee during the last tenure. He has alsoworked as the leader of the house in the PMC in his earlier terms.A letter issued by the state BJP chief, Ravindra Chavan, confirmed the nomination.The standing committee is one of the most important committees in the PMC, as it makes all the financial decisions about the civic body. The chairman plans and presents the annual municipal budget.BJP has as many as 119 corporators of the total strength of 165. NCP has 27 corporators, while NCP (SP) has three corporators. Congress has 15, and Shiv Sena (UBT) has one elected member.NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) decided to withdraw from the race for the mayor’s election and paved the way for BJP corporator Manjusha Nagpure to become the mayor unopposed. However, these parties have not declared their views about the standing committee elections yet.
