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

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

In its report, Committee opined that the face of BMC Mayor should attract the youth and bring the public to its side. The BMC election is scheduled to hold in February 2022. The 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 the 2010 action movie 'Dabangg', rose to fame due to his humanitarian and philanthropist efforts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, model and television personality Milind Soman serve as an icon for many fitness freaks, leading by example for a healthy lifestyle. 

Congress may contest solo in BMC polls

Shiv Sena has been a formidable force in the civic elections even when NCP-Congress was in power in the state. Having dominated the BMC since 1985, the 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 Samadhan Sadanand Sarvankar (80.42%) and BJP's Harish Ravji Chheda (77.81%). 

BMC Mayor election

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

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