The ruling-BJP swept elections for Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday, defeating the Congress by a comfortable margin.
BJP mayoral candidate Harshdeep Malhotra bested the Congress’ Rekha Rani by 17 votes, getting 40 votes of the total 64 polled. One vote was found invalid. The BJP’s candidate for Deputy Mayor, Asha Singh, defeated Congress nominee Aas Mohammad by a margin of 17 votes. The five Aam Aadmi Party MLAs who were eligible to vote stayed away, while two BJP MPs Maheish Girri and Manoj Tiwari cast their ballots. Congress Rajya Sabha MP Janardhan Dwivedi, who was also entitled a vote, did not turn up. The newly-elected Mayorsaid the first aim of his term would be to improve the financial condition in the cash-strapped civic body.
