BJP’s Savita South mayor
The BJP’s three-time councillor Savita Gupta was on Wednesday elected the first mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation while BSP’s Bir Singh, councillor from Madanpur Khadar, was elected unopposed as the deputy mayor.
Ms Gupta, the councillor from Amar Colony, polled 66 votes to trump NCP’s Phoolkali by a margin of 20 votes, INLD’s mayoral candidate Seema Pandit and deputy mayor candidate Krishan Pehelwan withdrew from the race after the BJP state leadership managed to convince them.
None of the parties had majority of their own in the 104-member House. The BJP has 44 members while the Congress has 29, the NCP 6, the BSP 5, the INLD 3, the SP, RLD and JD(U) one each and 14 Independents.
The BJP leadership worked till the last moment to ensure that its ally INLD’s candidates withdrew from the race for the two top posts besides enlisting the support of BSP by allowing its candidate to win the deputy mayorship sans contest by making Pehelwan withdraw.
The BJP is learnt to have got the support of five BSP members, three INLD councillors, one JD(U), 11 Independents. Two BJP MLAs who have votes in the municipal body.
Out of 114 people who have vote in the house, two Congress MPs — Sandeep Dikshit and Ramesh Kumar — did not vote. Union sports minister Ajay Maken was among the MPs and MLAs who cast their votes.
Six councillors — four from the BJP and two from the Congress — were elected unanimously to the Standing Committee after others in the fray withdrew from the race.
Rajesh Gehlot is the BJP nominee for chairman, Standing Committee, while Subhash Arya will be the Leader of the House. The Congress has nominated veteran councillor Farhad Suri as Leader of the Opposition.
The voting also had its share of drama when Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Pervez Hashmi was not allowed to vote initially after the BJP raised objection and wanted proof that his name is on the electoral rolls.
Earlier during the elections on April 15, he could not vote as his name was not in the rolls. He was, however, later allowed to vote.
The polling was held after the newly-elected councillors took oath.
A Congress councillor Ravi Kalsi created a flutter by adding one line to his oath “I won’t do what Bangaru Laxman did”. He was asked to take oath again to conform to the norms.
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