Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Kamaljeet Sehrawat, who had won the civic polls by a record margin, was elected unopposed as the Mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Friday. Kailash Sankla was also elected unopposed as the Deputy Mayor as no other party had filed nominations for the two posts.
While Sehrawat represents Dwarka-B ward, Sankla won from Punjabi Bagh in the high-stakes MCD polls held on April 23.
Shikha Rai of the BJP was chosen as the leader of the House while the Mayor and Deputy Mayor took charge along with other counillors who were election to the Standing Committee.
Outlining her priorities, Sehrawat said that her main focus would be on sanitation and enhancing transparency in administration through e-governance.
The 44-year-old former vice-president of Delhi BJP unit also asserted that the ruling party and the Opposition in the SDMC must “work together” for a greener and cleaner city.
“Sanitation would be one of our main focus areas and we are going to improve our garbage management system by bringing in more mechanised sweeping facilities. Also the plan is to take more eco-friendly measures by enhancing capacity of waste-to-energy plants,” Sehrawat told reporters, soon after assuming charge.
Preeti Aggarwal, who was elected as the Mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday, had also emphasised that sanitation would be her “top priority”.
Sanitation is a major governance issue in Delhi and the BJP, which has been ruling the MCD for the last 10 years, has faced criticism from residents and Opposition parties for lack of cleanliness in the city.
The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress have continuously attacked the BJP-led corporations, alleging that the three civic bodies have turned the city into a “mound of garbage”.
The three civic bodies had faired poorly in the Swachchh Bharat survey which was released recently by the Centre.
In the ‘Swachchh Bharat’ reckoning of 434 cities for 2016-17, areas falling under the three municipal corporations were at a low — the EDMC (196), SDMC (202) and North DMC (279).
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.
“Our emphasis is on ‘Digital India’ and e-governance, as envisioned by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have made several facilities available online. And, now our target is to improve such facilities and bring greater transparency in our administration and remove scope for corruption,” she said, when asked if the SDMC is taking measures to check the alleged graft in the civic body. “We have relaunched our website, and soon we will connect it with Facebook and Twitter too,” Sehrawat added.
Members of the SDMC’s Standing Committee were also elected. From the BJP, Bhupender Gupta, Shikha Roy, Nandani Sharma and Tulsi Joshi became the members, as fellow party member Poorva had withdrawn her nomination.
Congress’s Andrews Ganj councillor Abhishek Dutt and AAP councillor from Hastsal ward, Ashok Kumar, were also elected for the panel.
Incidentally, the first proceedings of the newly elected House of the SDMC, went without a hitch, as the municipal administration had made adequate security arrangements to ward off any unauthorised entry.
leader of Opposition Ramesh, an AAP councillor from Matiala, who sported a traditional ‘pagdi’ (headgear), said, “We do not want to do politics, but work with your party (BJP). But any step or policy which is against the interest of the people would be opposed tooth and nail by the AAP.”
Shikha Roy, councillor from Greater Kailash, was chosen as the leader of House. “We all represent the aspirations of the people of Delhi, and therefore we must not fail them. We dream of making the SDMC a model civic body, and therefore all must work together,” she said in her speech in the House.
Out of the total 104 wards under the SDMC that had gone to polls, the BJP won 70, the AAP 16 and the Congress 12. One ward each was won by the SP and the INlD, while four independent candidates emerged victorious.