As expected, Jodhpur ward councillor Meenakshi Patel was elected mayor of Ahmedabad on Tuesday, the fourth woman to occupy the post.
As expected, Jodhpur ward councillor Meenakshi Patel was elected mayor of Ahmedabad on Tuesday, the fourth woman to occupy the post. Some last-minute changes led to Amraiwadi corporator Ramesh Desai being elected deputy mayor.
Outgoing mayor Asit Vora conceded making some errors during his tenure and said that some decisions have to be taken in view of the BJP’s ideology.
The BJP had fielded Meenakshi Patel and Ramesh Desai as its candidates for the post of mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, while the Congress had proposed the names of Gomtipur corporator Vidhi Vaja and Ramol-Hathijan councillor Atul Patel. However, the BJP candidates won easily because the BJP has more than 2/3rd majority in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
Chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) Amit Shah proposed the name of Meenakshi Patel which was seconded by Paldi councillor Bijal Patel. Interestingly, Bijal Patel was herself said to be in the race for the post of mayor.
In his speech, Shah laid much stress on the family background of the saffron party’s candidate for the post of mayor, rather than on her qualities as a leader.
Meenakshi Patel’s name had been doing the rounds for the post of mayor for a long time but Ramesh Desai surprised many in the BJP when he was nominated for the post of deputy mayor. According to sources in the party, Saijpur-Bogha councillor Mahadev Desai’s name had been finalised for the post of deputy mayor.
However, last-minute manoeuvring by the city BJP president Rakesh Shah saw Ramesh Desai bagging the nomination for the post, the sources said.
It should be noted that one-and-a-half years ago, the BJP had removed Ramesh Desai from the post of chairman of Road and Building Committee because of corruption charges. In his place, Meenakshi Patel was appointed chairperson of the committee.
The outgoing mayor Asit Vora conceded that he had made some errors during his tenure but clarified that the errors had not malicious intention. He advised his colleagues to ignore media reports and allegations of corruption where the source of the information was not named.
The new mayor, Meenakshi Patel, thanked her party and promised to work for inclusive development of the city.
As the BJP has chosen to elect a Patidar and an OBC candidate as the mayor and the deputy mayor of Ahmedabad, the posts of standing committee chairman and the leader of the party in the AMC may now go to a Brahmin and a Jain councillor, respectively.
Ramesh Desai is surprise choice for deputy mayor; he succeeds Darshana Vaghela to the post.
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