BJP names Mayors of 3 civic bodies

The Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday announced the names of candidates for the post of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and other office-bearers for the three municipal corporations in the city.

Narendra Chawla (South Delhi), Adesh Kumar Gupta (North Delhi) and Bipin Bihari Singh (East Delhi) have been announced as the candidates for the posts of Mayor.

The mayoral polls in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on April 26 and in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on April 27 will be a mere formality in view of a dominance of BJP councillors in the three corporations. The list of names was released by Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari.

Notably among the outgoing office-bearers, SDMC Mayor Kamaljeet Sherawat and Leader of House of SDMC Shikha Rai have managed to get another chance though in different capacities. Sehrawat filed her papers for the post of Leader of the House of SDMC while Shikha Rai filed papers for the Chairperson of the Standing Committee of SDMC.

On the last day of filing nomination papers for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and the vacancies in the Standing Committee, Narender Chawala, BJP Councillor from ward number (15), Janakpuri east has filed his nomination for the post of Mayor of SDMC while Satyapal Malik filed papers for the Deputy Mayor's post. Chawla is a dedicated party worker and held senior positions in ABVP, BJP Yuva Morcha, Janakpuri Mandal and West Delhi District BJP. Presently, he is Chairman of Promotions and Appointments Committee. 

After filing nomination, Chawla said he will give priority to swachchhata initiatives under Rashtriya Swachchhata Abhiyan promoted by Prime Minister Narender Modi and also strive hard to solve parking woes in the Capital.

Meanwhile, Bipin Bihari Singh, BJP Councilor from ward number 12-E PatparGanj, has been fielded as mayoral candidate for the EDMC while Kiran Vaidh will be the Deputy Mayor. In North Corporation, Adesh Kumar Gupta and Rajesh Lawadia have fielded for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Apart from these four members, Poonam Bhati and Kamaljeet Sehrawat from BJP, Abhshek Dutt from Congress and Narender Kumar from AAP also filed nominations for the three vacancies of Standing Committee.

The deliberative wing of NMC will comprise deputy mayor Rajesh Lawadia, standing committee chairperson Veena Virmani, deputy chairperson Nisha Mann, member Manish Chaudhary and Leader of House Tilak Raj Kataria.

In EDMC, Kiran Vaidh would be the deputy mayor; standing committee chairman would be Satya Pal Singh, deputy chairman Romesh Chandra Gupta, member Sandip Kapoor and Leader of House Nirmal Jain.

The mayoral five-year tenure sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second open category, third for reserved category and the remaining two also being in open category.  Last year, the polls were held in the women category.

The incumbent mayors for the three corporations are Preety Agarwal (NDMC), Kamaljeet Sehrawat (SDMC) and Neema Bhagat (EDMC).