BJP’s Preety Agarwal was elected unopposed as the mayor of north Delhi on Thursday in the first meeting of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation after the polls.
Vijay Kumar Bhagat, who was also chosen unopposed, took oath as the deputy mayor.
No other party had filed nominations for the two posts. The members of the Standing Committee and the newly elected councillors also oath at the event.
Ms. Agarwal won from Rohini-F ward (57-N) and Mr. Bhagat from ward no 20-N in the municipal polls held on April 23. The BJP had swept the polls, winning a total of 184 out of 272 seats.
Oath-taking ceremony
After the polls, the BJP’s strength in the 104-member North Corporation is 64, while the AAP has 21 and the Congress 15 has councillors. The BSP has one member, while two councillors are independent candidates.
The ceremony started with the newly elected councillors taking the oath and the newly elected mayor taking charge.
Ms. Nisha Maan, BJP councillor from Alipur, was the presiding officer appointed to administer the oath to other newly elected councillors.
Chants of Modi, Modi
The first meeting started amid chants of “Modi, Modi”, Jai Shree Ram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. This was countered by the opposition which raised slogans supporting the AAP and the Congress.
AAP’s leader of Opposition Rakesh Kumar said the BJP-led civic body should now focus on fulfilling the promises the party made to the people before the elections.
“The promises should be fulfilled and our party will support them in the good that they plan for the people,” he said.
Mayor for a year
The post of mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.
In the polls, Ms. Agarwal had defeated AAP’s Abhinav Mishra by a margin of 5,413 votes. She had bagged 11,723 votes, while Mr. Mishra finished second with 6,310 votes.
Last year, Sanjiv Nayyar was unanimously elected north Delhi mayor on April 28.
The erstwhile unified municipal corporation of Delhi was trifurcated in 2012 into North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporation. Delhi has a total of 272 wards—North DMC (104 wards), SDMC (104) and EDMC (64).
