Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Sulochana Das became the first woman mayor of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday.
Sulochana Das got 1,74,562 votes and won the election with a margin of over 61,000 votes, as per the data shared by the State election commission.
On her historical win, she said, "I want to thank the people of Bhubaneswar and our CM Naveen Patnaik for giving me this opportunity. Smart and vibrant Bhubaneswar is our first priority and we will work for that."
"Under the leadership of the party president and incumbent chief minister Naveen Patnaik, BJD has undertaken several developmental projects in Bhubaneswar. To keep this going, all the 67 corporators and mayor will work together to make it a developed city. People of the entire world will talk about Bhubaneswar. We will work towards completing the ongoing development projects and soon introduce new projects," said Sulochana.
The newly-elected Mayor said that the people of Bhubaneswar are excited about having a woman mayor. People have high hopes from her. And it is her responsibility to prove that their decision of choosing her was the right decision.
"We aim to become 'People's mayor' and be easily accessible to the public. People will not have to come with their complaints, rather we will go to them and ask their problems and solve them. I started my career as a social activist, so I am well aware of the problems of Bhubaneswar. Water-logging is a big issue here; we will work on eradicating all such problems," said Das.
With Sulochana's victory, BJD has won the Mayor seats in two Municipal Corporations - Bhubaneswar and Berhampur. The elections were held on 108 municipal bodies, BJD won 95 of them.
( With inputs from ANI )
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