'Historic moment': Who is Ritu Tawde? Meet BJP’s mayoral pick for India’s richest civic body

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MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced Ghatkopar corporator Ritu Tawde as its mayoral candidate for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The announcement was made by Mumbai BJP president Ameet Satam at the civic headquarters, in the presence of senior party leaders and corporators.Who is Ritu Tawde?

Ritu Tawde is a two-time corporator from Ghatkopar.
Tawde joined the BJP from the Congress in 2012.
Tawde is a corporator from Ward 132.
She is known as a senior corporator and an aggressive Marathi face of the party.
She represents Mumbai’s eastern suburbs, a region the party is keen to give representation to.
Tawde’s name figured among the BJP’s frontrunners for the Mumbai mayor’s post, along with Sheetal Gambhir, Rajashree Shirwadkar, Asha Marathe, Priti Satam and Shrikala Pillai.
The BJP has stated that the mayor will be a Marathi-speaking person, making Tawde a strong contender.

Tawde’s name had been doing the rounds in the run-up to the announcement, along with that of Sion corporator Rajeshree Shirwadkar. Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena named Sanjay Ghadi as its candidate for the post of deputy mayor, a position that will have a one-and-a-half-year term.Calling the nomination a “historic moment”, Tawde said she was grateful to the party leadership for entrusting her with the responsibility. Satam said the new dispensation would work towards making Mumbai a corruption-free city, adding that the alliance would govern with the blessings and support of Mumbaikars.Even if the Opposition fields candidates for the posts of Mayor and deputy mayor, the BJP–Shinde-led alliance is confident of winning both positions, backed by its numerical strength of 118 corporators in the 227-member civic House.