Hakim submits nomination for post of KMC Mayor

Kolkata: Kolkata Mayor designate Firhad Hakim submitted his nomination for the post of Mayor at the office of Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Wednesday afternoon. The election will be held on Monday, December 3.

It may be mentioned that last Thursday, the names of Hakim and Atin Ghosh were proposed as leader and deputy leader of the Trinamool Congress Municipal Party.

All the 122 elected councillors of KMC supported the proposal in the meeting headed by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee at Uttirnya, paving the way for both of them to become Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively.

"Today (Wednesday) I have submitted my nomination on behalf of Trinamool Congress as the Mayor, as per the instruction of our party supremo Mamata Banerjee. The election will be held on December 3 and I am hopeful of being elected, as all the TMC councillors had chosen me as the leader of the Municipal party last Thursday," Hakim told reporters, after handing over his nomination paper to Municipal secretary Harihar Mondal.

BJP has decided to field Mina Debi Purohit, who is presently the councillor of Ward 22 of KMC, to contest against Hakim in the mayoral post. When questioned about BJP's move in this regard, Hakim said: "It is a democratic process and anybody is welcome to contest the elections."

Congress and Left Front have decided to boycott the election on Monday and stage a protest against the amendment in the previous KMC Act, that allows no person other than an elected councillor, to contest as Mayor or Deputy Mayor.

It may be mentioned that the state government has passed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the state Assembly on Tuesday, paving way for a non-councillor to the post of Mayor. The person, however, after being appointed as Mayor, has to get elected as a councillor of KMC within six months of the nomination.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Tuesday night gave his nod to the Bill, paving the way for Hakim, who

is the Urban Development

and Municipal Affairs minister, to file his nomination as

Mayor.