Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

B JP wins 2 of 3 top posts in may oral polls

GURGAON MC Due to the infighting, a Congbacked councillor was elected the senior deputy mayor by 23 votes, despite BJP having a majority of 26

- Kartik Kumar n kartik.kumar@htlive.com

GURGAON: In a major surprise, Congress-supported Pramila Devi Kablana of Ward 9 bagged the post of senior deputy mayor on Friday despite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having 26 councillor­s in the House.

Madhu Azad, BJP councillor from Ward 7, was elected unopposed as mayor, a post that had been lying vacant for the last 17 months.

BJP councillor from Ward 33, Sunita Yadav, was elected unopposed as the deputy mayor.

A total of 15 women were elected as councillor­s in the elections held on September 24. Two seats were reserved for women from the Scheduled Castes (SC) while 10 seats were reserved for women.

The mayoral elections were conducted at the John Hall in Civil Lines on Friday under heavy police cover and in the presence of political leaders and senior bureaucrat­s.

With her victory, Azad becomes the city’s first woman mayor and the second mayor, overall, following VimalYadav’s election in 2011. Her name was proposed by Rimple Yadav, the BJP councillor from Ward 5.

Madhu is the wife of Ashok Az ad, who has been with the B JP for nearly two decades. Madhu was an undergradu­ate student in the Delhi University but did not finish her education. She contested the Municipal Corporatio­n of Guru gram( M CG) elections for the first time in 2017.

Madhu was viewed as a‘ party candidate’ who rose through the B JP ranks. This year, the mayor’ s seat had been reserved for a woman candidate from the Scheduled Caste.

Azad and BJP councillor Sheet al Bagriof Ward 10 were the front-runners for the post and senior leaders within the party were divided over their selection.

However, the leaders made a unanimous choice after B JP state president Sub hash Bar ala held a series of meetings with party members at the state office on Thursday evening and at Hotel Acura in Civil Lines on Friday morning.

UNEXPECTED WINNER

Pramila, the wife of senior Congress leader Gaj eS inghKa bl ana, fought the 2017 elections as an independen­t candidate after Congress decided against contesting on the party symbol. RS Rathee, the council lo rf rom Ward 34, proposed her name.

Pramila’s victory may have been a direct result of the lack of resolution on the BJP’s part for picking the senior deputy mayor.

BJP’s pick, Brham Yadav, council l or of Ward 13, was reportedly backed by PW D minister Rao Na rb ir Singh. However, he faced resistance from withinthep­arty, from the faction backed by Rao Inderjit Singh, sources said. Pramila bagged 23 of 35 votes.

Sunita was widely expected to bag a post in the mayoral elections. The two-time councillor fromWard33­is thewifeofs­enior B JP leader A nil Y ad av. Ash wini Sharma, the councillor from

Ward 19, proposed her name.

TheBJPhadw­on14of35se­ats in the municipal corporatio­n elections on September 24 and later garnered the support of 12 councillor­s.

Unlike last elections, wherein BJP and INLD councillor­s had boycotted the polls, all councillor­s cast their votes.

Gurgaon didn’t have elected representa­tives since June 2016,

after a delimitati­on order by the urban local bodies (ULB) contended that the city’s population was less than 10 lakh and the ward count needed to be revised from 35 to 33.

 ?? SANJEEV VERMA/HT PHOTO ?? Newly elected mayor Madhu Azad (centre), senior deputy mayor Pramilla Kablana (left) and deputy mayor Sunita Yadav (right) celebrate after their victory.
SANJEEV VERMA/HT PHOTO Newly elected mayor Madhu Azad (centre), senior deputy mayor Pramilla Kablana (left) and deputy mayor Sunita Yadav (right) celebrate after their victory.

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