In a bid to empower women, the state government has elected nine women among the 16 chairpersons of boroughs under KMC
TMC supporters celebrate the party’s win in the civic elections on 21 December. News18
The Trinamool Congress on Thursday named minister Firhad Hakim as the next mayor of Kolkata after a meeting of the newly-elected councillors of the city civic body.
Hakim, who won the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election from ward 82, is the former mayor of the city and was appointed the civic body’s administrator after the earlier board’s term expired in 2020 but elections could not be held due to the pandemic.
Hakim, who is also an MLA from the Kolkata Port assembly segment, holds the Transport and Housing portfolios in the state Cabinet
MP Mala Roy will be the chairperson, MLA Atin Ghosh is deputy mayor and 13 other members will accompany Hakim in the Mayor-in-Council. Of the 16 chairpersons of the boroughs, the government has elected nine women to the positions.
This comes in the wake of the party clinching nearly 72 percent of votes in the KMC elections, held on 19 December. Mamata Banerjee’s party won 134 of 144 seats to post a hat-trick wins, decimating a frail challenge from the Opposition BJP, the Left Front and the Congress
After being named as the mayor, Hakim thanked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said, “I will retain her trust to my last breath. I will fulfill each and every commitment we made in our poll manifesto… We will implement the 10-point agenda mentioned in our manifesto to the last word. I will work with the new leaders of KMC, especially the women, and even with those party leaders who haven’t been given an official position in the civic body.”
The civic body was being run by a board of five administrators led by Hakim after the five-year tenure of the elected mayor-in-council ended in May 2020.
The special arrangement was made as the civic elections could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With elections to over 100 other civic bodies across the state still pending for over a year, the state election commission has informed the High Court of the proposed dates of the remaining municipal elections; phase 1 on 22 January in Asansol, Howrah, Bidhannagar, Siliguri, etc, and phase 2 on 27 February.
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