New Delhi:
BJP councillors Anamika Mithilesh and Nirmal Jain were on Wednesday elected unopposed as the mayors of South Delhi and East Delhi respectively. Though the result of the North Delhi mayoral election has not been be formally announced by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), BJP leader Jai Prakash is set to be elected unopposed to the post.
This is perhaps the first time when the mayoral elections for the three civic bodies in the national capital — the SDMC, the 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. 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.
