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Former Pune Mayor Mukta Tilak.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Ashiwal
Mukta Tilak, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Mayor of Pune, passed away on Thursday, aged 57.
Ms. Tilak, a first-time legislator from Kasba Peth Assembly constituency in Pune and a scion of Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak’s family, had been battling cancer for the past several months.
Sources said that her mortal remains will be kept at the Tilak family house in Kesari Wada for people to pay their last respects and the final rites will be performed at the Vaikuntha crematorium in the city on Friday.
After the February 2017 civic polls, Ms. Tilak achieved the distinction of being the first BJP Mayor of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) following the saffron party’s landslide sweep in the high-stakes PMC poll. The BJP won nearly 100 of the 162 seats in the civic body.
Prior to being elected as Mayor, Ms. Tilak had stated that her objective was to oversee Pune’s transformation into a Smart City, even if it involved taking some tough decisions.
Ms. Tilak, wife of Lokmanya Tilak’s great-grandson Shailesh Tilak, had an MBA degree with a specialisation in marketing.
She had won the civic polls four times in succession on a BJP ticket from the Narayan Peth-Sadashiv Peth area of Old Pune.
In the 2019 Assembly election, she was fielded from Kasba Peth in the heart of Old Pune, and won a thumping victory by defeating her nearest rival – the Congress’s Arvind Shinde – by a margin of more than 27,000 votes.
Despite her ill health, Ms. Tilak had turned up in Mumbai to vote for her party’s candidates during the crucial Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Parishad (State Legislative Council) byelections, which took place just before Eknath Shinde’s revolt and the toppling of the MVA government, leading to the formation of the new Shinde-Fadnavis government.
Leaders pay condolences
Condolences flowed in from Maharashtra’s political spectrum, with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde remarking: “With Muktatai’s demise, the city of Pune has lost an extraordinary leader in the social and political sphere.”
Remarking that Ms. Tilak’s dedication and commitment to the organisation was “a role model for all”, Mr. Fadnavis paid tribute to her contributions to the party in the 30 years of her political life.
“She had come from the hospital to vote during the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections despite her health deteriorating. She was an exemplar of commitment and dedication. Her passing away is extremely sad,” said Mr. Fadnavis.
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