Fighting Covid-19 top priority, say Delhi's new mayors

BJP leader Jai Prakash and party councillors Anamika Mithilesh and Nirmal Jain were on Wednesday elected unopposed as the mayors of three municipal corporations in Delhi.

This is perhaps the first time when the mayoral elections for the three civic bodies in the national capital -- the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) -- were held on the same day at the Civic Center in turns.

Hari Nagar councillor Anamika was elected unopposed to the post of South Delhi Mayor in the House meeting of the SDMC, while BJP councillor from C R Park, Subash Bhadana, was elected unanimously to the post of deputy mayor in the corporation.

Prakash, the outgoing chairman of the Standing Committee of the NDMC, was elected to the post North Delhi Mayor during the House meeting at the Civic Center here.

Soon after being elected, Prakash spelt out his priorities, saying, "Using all resources of the corporation optimally to fight Covid-19 would be our top priority".

He recalled his humble roots and said, "We had a milk businessand I have sold milk to people by going door-to-door. I am just an ordinary person of this city".

Ritu Goel, councillor from Rohini-I was elected unopposed as the deputy mayor of North Delhi.

After the election of mayor and deputy mayor of North Delhi, polling was held to elect the three members of the Standing Committee in which Yogesh Verma (BJP), Chhail Bihari Goswami (BJP) and Ajay Sharma (AAP) won the election, while Mukesh Goel (Congress) lost after getting the lowest votes, the NDMC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh posted a tweet alleging that the BJP tried to defeat the AAP by "giving away 14 votes to Congress" but Ajay Sharma still won.

Newly-elected mayor Jai Prakash rubbished the allegation and claimed Sharma won as "two of the independent councillors" veered towards the AAP".

Both the NDMC and the SDMC have 104-member Houses, while the EDMC has 64 members.

Soon after being elected, Anamika said her foremost priority will be dealing with the Covid-19 situation effectively.

In view of the financial challenges being faced by the SDMC, "we need to focus on a better revenue generation plan to deal with the situation and try to make the south corporation self-sustained rather than expecting financial assistance from the Delhi government", she said.

The new mayor also said that the SDMC will to provide all modern amenities to people in living in areas under it.

Anamika, a social worker, had held the post of chairperson of the DEMS Committee in the civic body for the last two consecutive years. She was also the member of Standing Committee of the SDMC in 2017, officials said.

Five nominations were filled for the three vacant posts of member in the SDMC Standing Committee.

With the withdrawal of nomination by Congress councillor Suresh Kumar and BJP councillor Mukesh Surya, the remaining nominees of the BJP Rajdutt Gehlot and Tulsi Joshi, and AAP nominee Jitender Kumar were declared as elected members, the SDMC said in a statement.

In the EDMC, besides Jain, Hari Prakash Bahadur of the BJP got elected unopposed as the deputy mayor of East Delhi.

Jain and Bahadur represent Ward No. 31 (Shahadra) and Ward No. 54 (Saboli) respectively, EDMC officials said.

The new East Delhi mayor said that he is going to follow the principles of former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The primary responsibility of the corporation is to keep areas clean and in this direction, sanitation work will be improved in east Delhi, Jain said.

BJP councillors Satya Pal Singh (Ward No. 61, Karawal Nagar), Deepak Malhotra (Ward No. 23, Ghondli), Pravesh Sharma (Ward No. 37, Ram Nagar) and AAP councillor Geeta Rawat (Ward No. 10, Vinod Nagar) were elected unopposed as members of the Standing Committee of the EDMC, the corporation said in a statement.

The outgoing mayors are Avtar Singh (NDMC), Sunita Kangra (SDMC) and Anju Kamalkant (EDMC), all from the BJP.

The mayoral five-year tenure sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in open category.