The first thing that strikes you about 32-year old Vimal Yadav is his downright approachability. His charm lies in his humility and easy demeanor. His Municipal Committee office is a kind of an "open house" where people can walk in freely as he tries to resolve their problems with an air of willingness and urgency. There seems to be no hang-ups about the position or power that his new role brings. "It has been a dream run," says he about his selection as the first Mayor of Gurgaon adding, "I am still passing through a number of mixed emotions of surprise, elation and excitement". Yadav does not look too much perturbed about the fact that he is currently running his office with hardly any infrastructure or support staff.

On June 21, 2011, Yadav was elected as the first mayor of Gurgaon marking an end to a month long speculation and drama as to who would get the coveted post. He will need all the skills in his bag to deliver the goods. He has a tough mandate ahead. To begin with, there is the new Gurgaon and the old Gurgaon, both with their unique set of problems. Also different segments such as the residents, industries, institutions, corporates of Gurgaon are looking for their solutions. The multiplicity of agencies and utilities with overlapping roles and responsibilities is not helping the situation. Yadav will have to balance all the interests as he moves ahead on his agenda to bring about transformation in Gurgaon.

A son of the soil, Yadav belongs to the village of Sarhaul in Gurgaon which falls at the backside of the Maruti Udyog Ltd facility in Sector 18, Gurgaon. He is one of the four sons of a banker father (his father retired from State Bank of India) and a homemaker mother. After graduated from DSD College, Gurgaon in Arts, he went on to pursue a MA degree in Political Science. But problems in his village pushed him to take up issues at a higher level. "My village had a serious problem of scarcity of water, poor sewerage and bad roads. These are not just problems of my village but of entire Gurgaon along with traffic issues, lack of parking and water-logging problems," says he with an air of seriousness.

Apart from tackling infrastructural problems, Yadav is determined to regularize unauthorized colonies in Gurgaon. "There are atleast 56 colonies housing lakhs of people that are awaiting approval," he informs. Another priority is to increase city's parking space. He wants to develop public parks for residents. Industry bodies have complained to him about the double tax that they have to pay (both to HSIIDC and MCG) and he wants to sort this issue soon.

For his team of councillors, Yadav wants each one to have his/her own office with support staff to be able to operate effectively. He has also made several sub-committees to look into specific problems of Gurgaon. He intends to work in conjunction with various departments and offices of Gurgaon and utilise their long standing experience and understand their action plan, solution and vision for this city.

Yadav is young and eager to make a difference. Gurgaon First wishes him all the success.