Ending weeks of political controversy and repeated postponements, BJP’s Pooja Wadhwa was on Tuesday elected Mayor of the Abohar Municipal Corporation, becoming the first woman to hold the post.BJP’s Dharmveer Malkat was elected Senior Deputy Mayor, while Deepak Chhapola was elected Deputy Mayor.The elections were held at the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Fazilka, under the supervision of senior advocate Sandeep Goyal, who was appointed as an observer by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Elaborate security arrangements were made at the venue.Abohar MLA Sandeep Jakhar accompanied all 28 BJP councillors from Abohar to Fazilka in a chartered bus for the election.Reacting to the outcome, former Punjab BJP president Jattvibeil Jakhar described the result as “a slap in the face” of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), alleging that it had attempted to “steal the people’s mandate”. He further alleged that while the ruling party claimed to be eliminating gangster culture in the state, it was itself trying to subvert the democratic mandate through “goondaism”.In the 50-member Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 28 councillors, AAP has 20, while the Congress and an Independent have one councillor each.The mayoral election had earlier been deferred on July 9 following high political drama, with the BJP and AAP making rival claims over the outcome.AAP’s Abohar constituency in-charge, Arun Narang, had claimed that the party’s mayoral candidate, Ganesh Sablania, had been elected after securing 27 votes in the House.However, BJP leaders, including Jattvibeil Jakhar and MLA Sandeep Jakhar, rejected the claim, asserting that the BJP enjoyed a clear majority with 28 elected councillors. They alleged that no voting had taken place and that the result had been declared arbitrarily.Following the controversy, the administration postponed the election.Earlier, on July 7, the maiden meeting of the newly elected Municipal Corporation, convened to administer the oath to councillors and elect the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, had also been postponed, citing “administrative exigencies.”It is learnt that following the controversy, liquor businessman Shiv Lal Doda and his family were allegedly made in charge of the mayoral election campaign for the AAP. However, they too allegedly failed to secure the desired outcome. Former Shiromani Akali Dal leader Doda’s daughter-in-law, Suhani Doda, had recently joined the AAP in the presence of Punjab AAP in-charge Manish Sisodia and Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema in Chandigarh.