Mumbai, Sep 9 (IANS): First-time Shiv Sena corporator Snehal Ambekar was elected the mayor of Mumbai - the 73rd of the city - while ally Bharatiya Janata Party's Alka Kerkar was elected unopposed as deputy mayor.

Ambekar, 42, is a former senior Life Insurance Corporation officer elected from Parel. She becomes the fourth woman to occupy the post in the 124-year-old history of Mumbai's civic body, now the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

Kerkar, 62, is a former school teacher and veteran BJP activist and was elected unopposed after the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party boycotted the elections to protest the presence of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in the house.

Ambekar secured 121 votes in the 226-member house while her Congress rival Priyatama Sawant secured 64 votes.

Leader of Opposition in the BMC Devendra Amberkar (Congress) said that though Thackeray is not a member, he entered the house during the election process for deputy mayor.

"He is said to have done so to wish the new mayor (Ambekar), but this is a very wrong thing to do, so we decided to boycott the elections," he later told media persons.

Ambekar will succeed Sunil Prabhu whose 30-month mayoral tenure has ended.