The Bharatiya Janata Party-led South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday elected the ruling party’s State president and Malviya Nagar councillor, Satish Upadhyay, as its representative to the Delhi Development Authority.
Mr. Upadhyay defeated Congress candidate Satish Gupta by one vote, polling 48 as opposed to Mr. Gupta’s 47. Though the House has 97 members currently, two councillors were absent during the voting.
This is the first time that the Opposition had put up a candidate for the post. BJP leader and Standing Committee chairperson Subhash Arya said the party was bound to win.
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“We had the support of 49 councillors, but one couldn’t attend due to a family wedding. We were confident of winning all along,” said Mr. Arya.
The Congress, however, saw the close-call as an indication of its growing support. The party has 37 councillors of its own. Congress councillor from Vikaspuri East Amrita Dhawan wasn’t present as she got married recently and is on her honeymoon, said Congress leaders.
“We put up a good fight. It goes on to show that BJP’s own councillors are disenchanted with the non-performance and corruption in the SDMC,” said Leader of Opposition Farhad Suri.
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Meanwhile, Mr. Upadhyay said his priority will be to take up the issue of land allocation for various projects of the SDMC.
“We need land for sanitary landfill sites and other projects. Building by-laws need to be changed too. My priority will be to expedite all the schemes that are for the common man,” he said.