Chhattisgarh: Congress gets mayor post in all 10 municipal corporations

The ruling Congress on Friday captured the mayoral posts in all 10 municipal corporations in Chhattisgarh.

Elections for 151 urban bodies, comprising 10 municipal corporations, 38 municipal councils and 103 nagar panchayats, were held on December 21, and the Congress had managed to win 1283 of 2834 wards. The BJP had won 1131 wards.

Of the 10 municipal corporations, the Congress had got a majority in Jagdalpur, Chirmiri and Ambikapur.

In seven others, namely Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg , Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Dhamtari, Korba, the Congress managed to install its mayor after garnering support from Independents.

In nine of these corporations, the Congress had won more wards than the BJP, with the latter having an upper hand only in Korba.

The Congress' Rajkishore Prasad was elected mayor of Korba on Friday, getting 36 votes against 33 by the BJP's Ritu Chourasia.

The BJP had won 31 wards in the 67-member civic house while the Congress had 26, but the latter got the support of eight corporators from the BSP, CPI(M), JCC(J) and Independents.

Mayoral polls for the rest nine corporations were held earlier on different days.

It was the first time mayors in the state were chosen indirectly, by corporators rather than the electorate.

In the 2014 polls, the BJP and Congress had won mayor posts in four corporations each, while two were bagged by Independents.

State Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said people had reposed faith in the Congress government while senior BJP MLA Dharamlal Kaushik accused the Bhupesh Baghel dispensation of misusing official machinery to win the polls.