Gurugram gets new Mayor, civic team

Madhu Aazad was on Friday elected the Mayor of Gurugram with the Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor also being women.

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Aazad, councillor from ward number 7 of Gurugram, was elected the Mayor unanimously.

The Mayor's post was reserved for a woman from the Schedule Caste category while the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor were for general categories.

However, in a setback to the BJP, the Congress-supported Pramila Gaje Kabalana, who represents ward number 9, was elected the Senior Deputy Mayor.

Kabalana got 23 votes out of a total 35, defeating the BJP's Bhram Yadav who got the remaining 12 votes.

Sunita Yadav of the BJP, who had won the election from ward number 33, was unanimously elected Deputy Mayor.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) elections for 35 wards were held on September 24 and the results were announced on the same day.

The BJP fought on all 35 seats on the party symbol but managed to win only 14. A large number of the other winning candidates were Independents.

On September 27, Union Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh, who is also the local Member of Parliament, managed to bring six Independents into the party fold.

A few days later, Haryana Cabinet Minister Rao Narbir Singh also inducted another six independent councillors into the BJP.

Thus the number of BJP councillors reached 26 but it was a big defeat for the party that the Senior Deputy Mayor candidate Yadav got only 12 votes.

The saffron party is the ruling party in the state. Both Rao Inderjit Singh and Rao Narbir Singh were present during the election procedure.

Mayor Aazad is from the Rao Inderjit Singh camp.

--IANS

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