Suman Bala elected third woman Mayor of Faridabad

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, February 13

Suman Bala was today elected as the Mayor of Faridabad. Devender Chaudhary, son of Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar, was elected as Senior Deputy Mayor and Manmohan Garg was elected as Deputy Mayor.

Suman Bala is the third woman to occupy the post. Anita Goswami and Brahmwati Khatana had earlier held the position during 2000-05 and 2005-10, respectively. The BJP which got the majority in the Municipal Corporation elections held on January 8, managed to get its supporters elected on all three posts of the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Sources said internal tussle in the ruling party delayed the elections to all three posts. Initially, the elections were proposed to be held on February 2.

The dispute was over the caste of the newly elected Mayor after it was alleged that she was a wrong claimant and it led allegations and counter-allegations between various groups. This time, the post of Mayor was reserved for an elected member from the SC category. A local court had recently turned down a petition which challenged the caste claim of Suman Bala who had won the election as an SC candidate.

Her name had been proposed for the post by some senior BJP leaders, including Chief Parliamentary Secretary Seema Trikha. It was reported that the issue got a twist after another senior leader proposed the name of his male supporter hailing from the SC category.

It was revealed that Suman Bala was considered close to CPS Seema Trikha, while Manmohan Garg was a favorite of Industry Minister Vipul Goel.

The consensus on the names of the three posts was reached at a meeting here this morning which was chaired by Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankhar. Divisional Commissioner D. Suresh administered the oath of office to the Mayor. Later, she administered the oath to other members.