Farmers Movement Archive

Elected unopposed, Delhi’s three civic bodies get new mayors

The three municipal corporations — North, East and South — elected new mayors and deputy mayors on Wednesday. GTB Nagar councillor Raja Iqbal Singh was elected mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Raghubarpura councillor Shyam Sundar Agrawal will be the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) mayor and Sagarpur councillor Mukesh Suryan was elected mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).Archana Dilip Singh (North DMC), Kiran Vaidya (EDMC) and Pawan Sharma (SDMC) have been elected deputy mayors.All the new mayors and deputy mayors, except Raja Iqbal Singh, were BJP nominees, and were elected unopposed since the party has a comfortable majority in all three corporations. Of the total 272 councillors in the three MCDs, the BJP has 181 members, the Aam Aadmi Party 49, and the Congress 31.North MCD mayor Singh is a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillor from the GTB Nagar ward. His election as mayor comes months after the party severed ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the three farm laws.The BJP and the SAD contested the 2017 municipal elections in an alliance. The SAD won five municipal wards. Last year, when the SAD parted ways with the BJP, SAD councillors resigned from their posts, but Singh, who was then the chairman of the Civil Lines zonal committee, did not follow the party diktat. He continued his association with the BJP and was nominated for the post of mayor in north corporation.The new mayors will replace Jai Prakash (north corporation), Anamika Mithilesh (SDMC) and Nirmal Jain (EDMC).Elections were due in April but were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Talking about his priorities, Singh said, “I will work to save Delhi from the third wave of Covid-19, provide proper sanitation facilities, good education and health facilities. The stress will be on making the corporation self reliant and expediting the ongoing projects.”SDMC mayor Suryan said his priority will be to effectively deal with the pandemic. “Due to Covid-19, the civic body is facing financial challenges so we need to focus on a better revenue generation plan to deal with the situation,” Suryan said.Newly elected EDMC mayor Shyam Sundar Aggarwal said his priority will be to make the East body self-reliant. “I will work to improve sanitation and public health. Our primary responsibility is to keep the area clean, so sanitation work will be improved,” he said.

Hindustan Times

17-06-2021

Delhi