Newly elected Patna mayor Sita Sahu prays as a priest performs a puja on her first day in office on Tuesday. The only difference to Sita's daily routine on Tuesday was she woke 45 minutes late - at 5.30am - tired after all the celebrations and felicitation on Monday for the city's first "Madam mayor". Soft-spoken Sita practised yoga as she does everyday and reached office in the Mauryalok Complex around 12 noon after a visit to the Bari Patan Devi temple in Patna City.Sita showed her religious side at work too, getting a quick puja performed in the office. The priest first offered flowers to the mayor's chair and chanted mantras, before doing the same routine for the mayor and the almirah in her chamber. Puja done, Sita took her seat and met the councillors. Fifty of the 75 councillors came to see her as did few BJP party workers. Ward number 22C councillor Rajni Rai, who Sita defeated on Monday, and ward 38 councillor Ashish Kumar Sinha, who lost deputy mayoral election, gave the meet-the-mayor meet a miss.Sita spent around an hour in office but did not check any file or issue any instruction. She dedicated her time to introductions with the new councillors. Commissioner Abhishek Singh was also among the visitors who came to meet her.Sita's businessman son Shishir accompanied her to the Patna Municipal Corporation office. "She went to meet urban development minister Maheshwar Hazari later in the day and urged him on how the waterlogging problem in the city could be addressed this monsoon," he said. "Our family members fully support her. This is a very big day for me. Watching my mother taking the mayor's seat reminds me of all the hardships she faced while taking care of us after the death of my father."Sources said she was scheduled to join office on Monday but Sita deferred her joining to Tuesday to attend a felicitation she was called to at the BJP office. Although the PMC elections are not held on party lines, parities lobbied hard for their candidates. in Monday's elections.ShishirSita's husband, a businessman, was killed in 1990, and till about a few years ago, her family used to run a cereal mill. Now, they own many businesses, including painting-and construction-related ones.Worth mentioning here that in the corporation's 62-year history, this is the first time it has got a lady mayor. Sahu who belongs from a business family and herself has looked after her family business so far, is known to be a soft-spoken lady. It has to be seen how the 59-year-old Sahu maintains a balance between the councillors and addresses various civic issues.

Text by Shuchismita Chakraborty, picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh