Udaipur : BJP corporator Govind Singh Taunk was elected as the new Mayor of Udaipur Municipal Corporation on Tuesday. The saffron party that won 46 out of the 70 seats in the civic body elections, held recently, had a clear cut win in the contest as all of its corporators voted for the 75-year old ‘debutant’ politician who is a retired chief engineering from the Public Works Department. Congress had fielded Arun Tank as its candidate for the UMC chief, hoping to rope in some support from the dissatisfied BJP corporators, however, their hopes were dashed.
The congress candidate secured 20 votes from its party corporators, one voted in favour of NOTA while three didnt cast their votes. The BJP had shifted all its 46 corporators to an unknown place soon after the results were announced. Female corporators were taken to a trip to Maharashtra while their male counterparts had a visit to Mahakaleshwar temple in Madhya Pradesh. They were not allowed to switch on their phones and in cases of emergencies, the party leaders had facilitated video callings with family members back home.
The corporators were directly brought to Nagar Nigam where they voted for the Mayor. Later the congress corporators were brought in bus who polled for their candidate. Soon after the result, Taunk was sworn in as the new mayor. Speaking to the media, Taunk said infrastructural development of the city would be top on his priority list.
At Kanore Nagar Palika, the political drama finally came to an end after Congress candidate Chanda Meena was declared the chairperson. Both the BJP and congress had secured 7 seats each while remaining 6 seats were captured by Janta Sena. Councilors of Janta Sena refused to vote and hence it was a draw. Later the chief was elected through lottery system and Chanda’s luck favored her.