First Kolkata Muslim Mayor in free India
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, December 3
Kolkata today got its first Muslim Mayor of the post-Independence era when West Bengal Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim got elected to the post by securing 121 votes in the 144-member Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
BJP’s Meena Devi Purohit, who contested against Hakim, got only five votes of the BJP councillors. Twelve Left Front and two Congress councillors boycotted the poll. The post of mayor had fallen vacant after Sovan Chatterjee resigned following directions from Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Kolkata municipal election was first held in 1924.
Between 1924 and 1947, 22 persons served as the mayor of Kolkata out of which five were Muslims. No Muslim got elected to the post after the country became Independent.
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