Hung house: Next Gurugram Mayor likely to be from BJP

Gurugram: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday have missed the majority mark to stake a claim on its own strength for the post of Mayor and other official posts in the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).

Even as the party has suffered major defeats in key wards, the next Mayor is most likely to be from the saffron party, courtesy the veteran Ahirwal leaders namely Rao Inderjeet Singh and Rao Narbir Singh.

While most of the councillors that have won from the BJP belong from the Rao Narbir Singh camp, interestingly, the sizable numbers of independents who have won support of Rao Inderjeet Singh.

While Rao Narbir Singh who is the MLA from Badshahpur constituency is the state PWD minister in Manohar Lal Khattar's government, Rao Inderjeet has a long reign of getting elected as an MP from Gurugram constituency.

Over five victorious independent councillors have lend their support to Rao Inderjeet and contested as independents as they could not get the tickets from the BJP. The support of these five independents will result in the ruling party crossing the majority mark of 18 and thereby paving the way for staking claim of Mayor and other significant posts. There is likelihood that Madhu Azad who was victorious from Ward -7 may be the nect Mayor of Gurugram. This is not for the first time when the veteran Ahirwal leaders have shown their influence in the politics of the city.

In the previous MCG elections, most of the councillors who had won were independents, most of them belonged to these leaders's camp. They later amalgamated with the Congress party for the post of mayor and the deputy mayor.

The political influence of the Ahirwal leaders is further set to increase as the sister-in-law of Gurugram MLA Umesh Aggarwal lost her seat to independent candidate Pramila Gaje Kablana by a huge margin.