Hung house: Next Gurugram Mayor likely to be from BJP

GURUGRAM: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday have missed the majority mark to stake a claim on its own strength for the post of Mayor and other official posts in the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).

Even as the party has suffered major defeats in key wards, the next Mayor is most likely to be from the saffron party, courtesy the veteran Ahirwal leaders namely Rao Inderjeet Singh and Rao Narbir Singh.

While most of the councillors that have won from the BJP belong from the Rao Narbir Singh camp, interestingly, the sizable numbers of independents who have won support of Rao Inderjeet Singh.

While Rao Narbir Singh who is the MLA from Badshahpur constituency is the state PWD minister in Manohar Lal Khattar’s government, Rao Inderjeet has a long reign of getting elected as an MP from Gurugram constituency.

Over five victorious inde- pendent councillors have lend their support to Rao Inderjeet and contested as independents as they could not get the tickets from the BJP. The support of these five independents will result in the ruling party crossing the majority mark of 18 and thereby paving the way for staking claim of Mayor and other significant posts. There is likelihood that Madhu Azad who was victorious from Ward -7 may be the nect Mayor of Gurugram. This is not for the first time when the veteran Ahirwal leaders have shown their influence in the politics of the city.

In the previous MCG elections, most of the councillors who had won were independents, most of them belonged to these leaders’s camp. They later amalgamated with the Congress party for the post of mayor and the deputy mayor.

The political influence of the Ahirwal leaders is further set to increase as the sister-inlaw of Gurugram MLA Umesh Aggarwal lost her seat to independent candidate Pramila Gaje Kablana by a huge margin. GHAZIABAD: A real estate builder allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his residence located in Kavi Nagar area of Ghaziabad on late Sunday night, said police.

The deceased Sanjay Singhal (48) was the owner of Charms India Private Limited and his company is currently developing a huge residential apartment complex - Charms Castle, with tallest twin towers at Raj Nagar Extension.

According to police, Singhal was dropped at his Shashtri Nagar residence by his driver at around 12am. At 12:30 am, he went to his room and shot a bullet into his head with his licensed revolver. Hearing the sound of the gunshot, his wife and younger son who were present at the home, rushed to his room. He was somehow taken to nearby Sarvodaya Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

“The body has been recovered and sent for the post mortem. We have recovered the gun used in the incident. We are yet to ascertain the actual reason which forced the builder to go for such an extreme step. However, we have launched a probe into the matter,” said Neeraj Kumar Singh, Station House officer, Kavi Nagar Police Station.

“No suicide note was found from the spot,” confirmed police.

According to Singhal’s family statement, he was under severe stress because of economic crisis due to realty market slowdown. However, the family has not made any allegations yet. Sources said that Singhal was under too much pressure due to his newly launched project and was depressed over the delayed government approval process system.