BMC Polls 2022: Sonu Sood, Milind Soman & Riteish Deshmukh Congress' Mumbai Mayor picks

Congress Party, which plans to contest all 227 seats in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on its own, has recommended three popular names for post of Mumbai Mayor. Strategy Committee of Mumbai Congress unit prepared a report for BMC Elections and sent it to top leers for a discussion on Monday. Strategy Committee has recommended names of Bollywood actors Sonu Sood, Riteish Deshmukh, and fitness enthusiast Milind Soman as potential candidates for Mumbai Mayor's post. incumbent chief Kishori Pednekar is a leer of ruling Shiv Sena. 

In its report, Committee opined that face of BMC Mayor should attract youth and bring public to its side. BMC election is scheduled to hold in February 2022. municipal corporation is considered Asia’s richest civic body with an annual budget of nearly Rs.37,000 crore. 

Son for former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Riteish Deshmukh is a famous Bollywood actor known for his work in Hindi cinema and Marathi cinema. Meanwhile, actor and model Sonu Sood, known for his role in 2010 action movie 'Dabangg', rose to fame due to his humanitarian and philanthropist efforts, especially during COVID-19 pandemic. On or hand, model and television personality Milind Soman serve as an icon for many fitness freaks, leing by example for a healthy lifestyle. 

Congress may contest solo in BMC polls

Shiv Sena has been a formidable force in civic elections even when NCP-Congress was in power in state. Having dominated BMC since 1985, Shiv Sena, eyes to retain it by jointly contesting with NCP and Congress against BJP, but Congress seeks to strike out solo. In a recent card released by NGO Praja on Friday, Congress' Ravi Kondu Raja ranked first in performance, getting an 81.12% score. He was followed by Shiv Sena's Samhan Sanand Sarvankar (80.42%) and BJP's Harish Ravji Chheda (77.81%). 

BMC Mayor election

In November 2019, Sena won both Mayor and Deputy Mayor polls in Mumbai Mayor polls, retaining control over Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Shiv Sena's Kishori Pednekar and Suhas Wkar won Mayor and Deputy Mayor post after BJP's Ashish Shelar bowed out of race. Shiv Sena has 84 seats, BJP has 82 seats, NCP has six corporators, and Congress has 30 corporators. Before separating at civic level, saffron allies fell out with Sena insisting on an equal sharing of CM post for 2.5 years and portfolios, which was refused by BJP, leing to formation of Sena-NCP-Congress government.

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