BJP leader VV Rajesh was sworn in as mayor of Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, after the party marked its first ever victory in a municipal corporation in Kerala.
The party won 50 of the 101 wards in the city in the municipal corporation polls, following which Rajesh secured 51 votes in the mayoral election on Friday, including the support of an independent councillor.
Rajesh, who is the BJP's state secretary and and Kodunganoor ward councillor, becomes the party's first-ever mayor in Kerala. The councillor called it “a historic moment”, adding that the moment could “change the political situation of Kerala.”
“... I think that the political change of Thiruvananthapuram will change the entire political situation in Kerala,” Rajesh told ANI news agency.
He further said that the development programmes would be implemented in all 101 wards equally. “We will move forward, taking everyone along…Thiruvananthapuram will be transformed into one of the developed cities of the country,” ANI quoted Rajesh as saying.
In the mayoral elections, P Sivaji of the LDF received 29 votes, and UDF candidate K S Sabarinathan got 19 votes, two of which were later declared invalid. Rajesh took oath after the mayoral elections, with senior BJP leaders, including state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former union minister V Muraleedharan and former Kerala unit president K Surendran also present at the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation office, PTI news agency reported.
The municipal corporation in Thiruvananthapuram had witnessed four decades of an LDF majority before the BJP secured victory.
{{/usCountry}}The municipal corporation in Thiruvananthapuram had witnessed four decades of an LDF majority before the BJP secured victory.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to Rajesh's election, Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the CPM had “run Thiruvananthapuram city to the ground”, adding that the corporation had become a “den of corruption”, ANI reported.
"As our Mayor, Rajesh, said, we aim to make Thiruvananthapuram one of the top three cities in the country. That is our goal.
Meanwhile, in Kollam municipal corporation, UDF leader A K Hafeez was elected mayor, and in Kochi, the post was taken by four-time councillor from UDF, V K Minimol.