After the swearing-in ceremony of Indore Mayor and BJP corporators on Thursday at the historic Gandhi Hall, former Mayor-in-council member Ajay Singh Naruka on Friday was unanimously elected as new chairman of Indore municipal corporation. Naruka is considered to be close to BJP MP and lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Though senior BJP corporators Chandu Shinde and Rajendra Rathore, both cohorts of State urban development and welfare minister Kailash Vijayvargiya were also vying for this coveted post, it was finally Naruka who donned the hat of IMC chairman.
Naruka was declared elected as IMC chairman unopposed in the first meeting of Indore Municipal Corporation presided over by Indore collector Akash Tripathi. In the meeting, a four-member Appeal Committee comprising BJP corporator and former
IMC chairman Rajendra Rathore, Jyoti Tomar, Pranav Mandal and Pushpendra Singh Chouhan was also constituted.
Earlier in the day as per whip issued by the BJP, all the newly elected 65 BJP corporators had been summoned at the party office in Jaora Compound at 9 am to discuss nomination of IMC chairman and as was decided in the corporator's meeting, Ajay Singh Naruka became unanimous choice for the coveted post.
At 12 pm, collector Akash Tripathi started proceedings for the election of IMC chairman and accordingly had fixed duration of one hour from 12 pm to 1 pm to enable corporators take part in the electoral process of IMC chairman. During the time-slot given by collector, only one nomination of Ajay Singh Naruka, whose name had been proposed by Chandu Shinde and seconded by Suraj Kairo, was received by the collector and accordingly he declared Naruka elected as the new IMC chairman unopposed.
After being awarded certificate of IMC chairman by the collector, Naruka said that he would ensure to shoulder his responsibility honestly as enshrined on him by the party and he will see to it that there is no violation of legalities during the proceedings of IMC. Congress corporators remained conspicuous by their absence in the IMC convention.