Nikita Bhalla (35), a Congress councillor from ward number 5, was elected as the Mayor of Moga city on Thursday, thereby becoming the first woman to hold the post.
Congress, the ruling party of Punjab, had managed to win just 20 of the 50 seats during the Moga municipal polls, the results of which were declared on February 17 this year.
While Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had won 15 seats, another 10 were bagged by Independents. Four seats were won by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), whose leaders faced heavy opposition during campaigning due to the ongoing farmers agitation, had won just one seat.
Later, all the 10 Independents, most of them Congress rebels, had announced their support for the ruling party.
Bhalla, a first-time councillor, is a graduate and a teacher who has taught in a private school for nearly ten years, before contesting the municipal polls.
Apart from Bhalla, Parveen Kumar Sharma and Ashok Dhamija were chosen as senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.
In 2015 when Moga city had voted for selecting the city’s first Municipal Corporation House, Akshit Jain (then 26-years-old) was elected as the first Mayor. Akshit was the son of former SAD MLA Joginder Pal Jain.