With elected term of multiple civic bodies ending, Mukesh Kumar appointed AMC administrator

The five-year tenure of the elected wing in several municipal corporations, including the Amdavad Municipal Corporation (AMC), will end on March 9, after which the Gujarat government has decided to appoint administrators to run the civic bodies until new elections are held.

In Ahmedabad, senior IAS officer Mukesh Kumar, currently the Additional Chief Secretary of the Education Department, has been appointed as the administrator of the civic body. He previously served as Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner, giving him experience with the city’s governance and civic issues.

Administrators have also been appointed in other municipal corporations across Gujarat. In Vadodara, Shalini Agrawal has been named administrator, while Milind Torawane will oversee the civic administration in Surat. In Bhavnagar, Harshad Patel has been given the responsibility.

With the terms of mayors, standing committee chairpersons, and corporators expiring on March 9, all will become former office-bearers, and the civic bodies will function under administrative rule.

Although municipal elections are ideally held before the end of the civic body’s term, this was not possible this time. As per legal provisions, the state government has therefore appointed administrators until the elections are conducted.

The final voter list for the local body elections is yet to be released, but with the Holashtak period now over, there is speculation that municipal elections may be announced by the end of April. Administrators have also been appointed in Rajkot and Jamnagar, further intensifying political discussions about the upcoming polls.