Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
BJP has won 57 seats in the newly elected municipal corporation body. Hence as per the party strength, it would be nominating 5 candidates as co-opted members.
Meanwhile, the party has launched a drive to collect the biodatas of aspirants and succeeded in collecting 250 applications, so far. The applicants are mostly the ones who were not given nominations to contest the municipal corporation elections. The party will be nominating co-opted members either in the municipal corporation or the zilla parishad. It seems that 50 candidates will be fighting for one seat as a co-opted member.
Besides, BJP’s five members; AIMIM will be nominating three and Shinde Sena will be sending one member. And for the remaining one seat, the remaining parties will have to unite. Meanwhile, the election process is expected to be completed in the first week of March.
The names of aspirants will be sent to the party superiors for intimation, but the process and decision will be taken by taking local-level leaders into confidence, said the sources.
Co-opted members in ZP after 34 years
Until 1992, co-opted members were elected in the zilla parishad. Since then, no nominations have taken place. In October 2025, Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bavanukule corresponded with the Chief Minister, requesting the resumption of co-opted member elections. The Chief Minister has reportedly responded positively. Accordingly, one co-opted member will be nominated for every 10 seats. For the first time, the members will also be elected in the panchayat samitis. A total of 12 panchayat samiti members and six ZP members will be approved as co-opted.
Of these, BJP will get 2 co-opted member seats in the ZP, Shinde Sena 2, Uddhav Sena 1, and the remaining 1 seat will go to other parties collectively.