AURANGABAD: On a day a Shiv Sena nominee got elected as deputy mayor of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the opposition AIMIM has suspended six corporators for remaining absent during voting in defiance of the party orders.
The announcement was made by the party's Lok Sabha MP from the city and Maharashtra unit chief Imtiyaz Jaleel.
While Shiv Sena's Rajendra Janjal won the election by securing 51 votes, BJP-backed independent candidate Gokulsingh Malke got 34 votes and Zafar Khan of the All India Majlis-e- Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) managed 13 votes.
Of the 115 corporators in the civic body, 100 remained present to cast their votes.
"We have suspended six corporators and they have been removed from the party rolls. Five of them remained absent from the civic house today and one voted for a BJP-backed candidate," Jaleel told PTI.
The six corporators are identified as Saira Bano Ajmal Khan, Sangeeta Subhash Waghule, Naseembi Sandu Khan, Vikas Yedke, Shaikh Sameena Shaikh Ilyas and Saleema Baubhai Qureshi.
"Some city leaders tried to contact us for support for a BJP-backed Independent candidate. But we were clear on our stand that we would vote only for our candidate," Jaleel said.
The election was necessitated following the resignation of BJP's Vijay Autade over "suspension" of a water scheme for Aurangabad by the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.
In the 115-member civic house, the Sena is the largest party with 29 seats, followed by the AIMIM with 24, BJP with 23, 17 Independents, 11 from the Congress, five from BSP, four from NCP and two of RPI(D).