As expected it was a smooth sailing for Congress in the Mayoral elections of Raipur Municipal Corporation.
Congress candidate Ejaj Dhebar in a direct contest beat his BJP rival Mrityunjay Dubey by 12 votes on Monday and secured victory for the party for third consecutive term.
Outgoing Mayor Pramod Dubey was later made Congress candidate for Chairman’s post. Beating BJP candidate Dr Pramod Sahu, Dubey was elected to the coveted post.
Earlier, Congress Corporators assembled at party’s state headquarters in the morning where, following discussions with PCC Chief, they came to consensus on the name of Ejaj Dhebar for mayoral post. Keeping in view seniority and skill to handle Corporators, Pramod Dubey was pleased with the candidature of Chairman’s post.
Two other contenders for the Mayoral post, Gyanesh Sharma and Shreekumar Menon proposed Dhebar’s name. In the elections Dhebar secured 41 votes. All the seven independents voted for Congress candidate while BJP candidate Dubey succeeded in getting only 29 votes.
PCC Chief Markam, MLAs Satyanarayan Sharma and Vikas Upadhyay were present during the elections to boost the morale of the Congress candidate.
Notably, this was third consecutive victory of Congress in Mayoral elections and Kiranmayi Nayak and Pramod Dubey have earlier served as Congress Mayor before Dhebar.