Deshpande defeated Congress candidate Anil Jadhav, the lone opponent, to bag the post. The election was initiated after the one-year tenure of NCP corporator Bapu Pathare ended recently.

Of the 16-member committee, five NCP members, three BJP members and two Sena members voted in favour of Deshpande while the only Maharashtra Navnirman Sena member remaining abstained from voting. Jadhav was able to get five votes of his own party.

In a bid to keep the saffron alliance from grabbing coveted posts in the PMC, the Congress had proposed to support the NCP candidate for the standing committee chairman. The NCP in turn had declared that it could not back-track from its commitment to Shiv Sena while coming to power in the civic body.