Ahmedabad, Sep 12 (PTI) The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Daxesh Mavani was on Tuesday elected as the mayor of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) amid high drama, as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominated one of its turncoat corporators for the post.
Ahead of the civic body’s general board meeting, the BJP announced that it has chosen Mavani and Narendra Patil for the post of mayor and deputy mayor respectively for the next two and a half years.
The election was necessitated as the two-and-a-half-year term of outgoing mayor Hemali Boghawala just ended.
In the 120-seat Surat civic body, the BJP has 93 corporators, while the AAP is the only opposition party with 27.
After the civic polls in 2021, 12 AAP corporators switched sides and joined the BJP over two years.
Dharmendra Vavaliya and Nirali Patel were among the turncoats, whom the AAP during the meeting announced as their candidates for mayor and deputy mayor respectively.
When BJP and AAP corporators assembled for the general board meeting, the AAP announced its candidates, causing confusion.
In the election that followed, Mavani received 91 votes, while Vavaliya for 23. The same division of votes was recorded when Patil garnered 91 votes and Patel received 23.
Meanwhile, new mayors and deputy mayors were also elected in the BJP-ruled civic bodies in Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar cities on Monday.
Nayna Pedhadia was elected as the mayor of Rajkot, while Narendrasinh Jadeja became the deputy mayor for a term of two and a half years.
Bharat Barad became the mayor of Bhavnagar and Mona Parekh became his deputy. In Jamnagar, first-time corporator of the ruling BJP Vinod Khimsuriya was elected mayor and Krishna Sodha is the deputy mayor. PTI PJT ARU
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