Gandhinagar’s new mayor has never sat in the corporation before. Rupsinh Thakor, 29, who won from Ward 4 in last month’s election, was named to the post at the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation’s first general board meeting on November 3, IANS reported. Anjanaben Mehta becomes deputy mayor and Mahendra Patel chairs the standing committee, according to Gujarat Samachar and Chitralekha.
A sealed cover and a 1:30 pm mandate
The BJP’s state leadership picks its civic office-bearers, and the names reach the hall in a sealed cover that is opened at the board meeting. On Tuesday the cover ran late. Gujarat Samachar and IANS both reported that the party’s mandate had not reached the corporation when the meeting was due, and Congress corporators took the delay to the municipal commissioner. The BJP’s city in-charge arrived with the mandate at about 1:30 pm, after which the three names were read out.
The last house split its five years between two mayors. Hiteshbhai Makwana served the first two and a half years, and Meeraben Patel took over in June 2024 when his stint ended, DeshGujarat reported at the time. If the corporation follows the same pattern, Thakor would hold the post until around mid-2029, when it passes to someone else for the rest of the term.
Gandhinagar votes on its own calendar
Gandhinagar went to the polls on October 11, months after most of Gujarat’s other municipal corporations voted in April, because its five-year cycle began with the October 2021 election. Results came on October 13. The BJP won 38 of the 44 seats across 11 wards, the Congress five and an independent one, ThePrint reported, with turnout at 59.25% of about 2.59 lakh voters.
The BJP lost ground at the margins. In 2021 the BJP held 41 seats against the Congress’s two and AAP’s one. This time AAP lost its only seat, and the Congress more than doubled its strength. With the independent joining the opposition, the benches facing the BJP now hold six members instead of three.
Six opposition voices on a 44-seat board
Karamjitsinh Vaghela, who won Ward 6 for the Congress, is the new leader of the opposition, DeshGujarat and IANS reported. Six members cannot outvote a ruling party with 38, but they can put questions on the record, push for item-wise discussion in board meetings and make noise about delays, as they did on day one.
Much of the real spending power sits with Mahendra Patel. The standing committee clears contracts and spending proposals before they reach the full board, so the city’s road, drainage and water-supply works will pass through his committee first. Thakor said Gandhinagar’s development would be his priority, IANS reported. Residents will get the first concrete sign of the new team’s plans when the corporation takes up its next budget.
Sources: IANS via Punjab Kesari, Gujarat Samachar, Chitralekha, DeshGujarat, ThePrint
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.