From correspondents in Himachal Pradesh, India, 12:03 AM IST

Madhu Sood of the Congress was Saturday elected mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, a day after the divided Congress councillors failed to come to a consensus over the names of the mayor and deputy mayor.

In the 25-member house, the Congress has 15 councillors, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have eight and two councillors respectively.

Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur told reporters that Madhu Sood has been elected as mayor, while Harish Janartha was re-elected as the deputy mayor for a second term.

Interestingly, the Congress councillors failed to arrive at a consensus over their candidates for both the posts Friday and boycotted the proceedings of the house. As a result, the election could not be held as the house fell short of a quorum.

In the election too, a sharp division within the Congress came to the fore. The councillors were divided in two groups - one backed by Congress Legislative Party leader Vidya Stokes and the other by Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)