BJP’s Sarita Choudhary is Mayor of South corporation

Choudhary,a senior BJP leader,defeated first-time Congress councillor Abhishekh Dutt by 16 votes.

Bhujan Samaj Party’s councillor Sahi Ram was elected deputy mayor. The seat has been reserved for BSP councillor as part of an arrangement between the BSP and the BJP. BSP candidate Sahi Ram defeated Congress’ Praveen Rana by nine votes.

The BJP is the single largest party in South Municipal Corporation with 44 councillors. It has come to power with the support of BSP,INLD,JD-U and Independents. This time,NCP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri voted against the Congress.

Besides the 104 councillors,Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly also voted for their party’s candidates. Union Minister Ajay Maken did not turn up to cast his vote.

MLA Mukesh Sharma came late and could not cast vote for the post of Mayor. From the Congress,MP Sandeep Dikshit,Ramesh Kumar,Parvez Hashmi and Mahabal Mishra came to cast their votes.

MLAs Arvinder Singh Lovely and Mukesh Sharma from the Congress cast their votes. From the BJP,MLAs Harsharan Singh Balli,Satprakash Rana and V K Malhotra also cast votes.

The House also elected three members for the Standing Committee — Rajesh Gehlot and Subhash Arya from the BJP and Nutan Kochar from the Congress.

Later,Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel met Mayor Sarita Choudhary and expressed his confidence in the BJP candidates.

Goel said despite the efforts of the Congress to give “a tough fight to the BJP”,the party had emerged victorious

“This victory clearly indicates that all the parties are united against the anti-people policies of the Congress,” he said. Talking to Newsline,Mayor Choudhary said her focus would remain on the development of villages and empowerment of women.

“I have a plan to bring about the development of villages. We will change the face of these rural pockets. The women councillors can expect full support from us,” she said.