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Sena man Hareshwar Patil is new Bombay mayor

The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine scored a victory in the country's premier civic body, the Bombay Municipal Corporation, today with Hareshwar Laxman Patil being elected mayor and Dr Ram Barot his deputy. They defeated their rivals by huge margins.

Elections for the two posts were held today at the civic headquarters in south Bombay. The election process started at 1230 hours IST and the results were available by evening. This year the mayoralty is reserved for a candidate belonging to the other backward classes.

Sena politician Patil joined the civic body in 1985 and headed the reforms committee in the mayor-in-council system. He replaces Nandkumar Satam, who was the mayor under the scrapped MIC system.

The MIC, introduced last year on an experimental basis, was scrapped by the Maharashtra government even before it could complete a year.

Patil secured 133 votes for the mayor's seat against his Congress rival Ashok Jadhav -- backed by the Samajwadi Party, Republican Party of India and others -- who secured only 79. BJP politician Barot got 135 votes as against 73 secured by Anuradha Samant of the Kamgar Aghadi, who was backed by the Congress, SP and others.

Patil later said he would strive to keep the city clean and also bring more revenue to the BMC exchequer.

He said water supply to citizens should be maintained properly while also curtailing wastage and pilferage.

The new mayor said the civic administration should be responsive to citizens and felt there was scope to raise octroi and general taxes.

In the House of 221, the Shiv Sena has 102 councillors, the BJP 26, Congress 50, SP 20, RPI 3, Janata Dal 2, Communist Party of India 1, and independents 15.

UNI

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