Gandhinagar mayor resigns

Ahmedabad: Gandhinagar mayor Praveen Patel, on Thursday, tendered his resignation to the municipal commissioner as a BJP councillor. Explaining his reasons, Patel said that he served his two-and-a-half-year term as a mayor and did not wish to continue in the post. “My term as mayor got over and this is a routine exit. There is no other reason,” Patel later told media persons.Sources in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) said that the vacated post will now be open for a woman candidate. A month after the GMC polls ended in a tie in 2016 with each party winning 16 of the total 32 seats, BJP captured power in the civic body when Patel switched sides moments before the general body meet. After the meeting, Patel was made the mayor by the BJP which secured 17 seats in the GMC and Congress tally got reduced to 15. Sources said that Patel’s resignation may be a fallout of the BJP isolating him from key political functions.