The newly-elected Mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC), Yogendra Chandolia, has promised to push for the unification of the three civic bodies in the Capital if a BJP Government comes to power at the Centre.
After his election as the Mayor on Monday, Chandolia said he would take up the matter with senior leaders of the BJP as merger of the three entities will result in saving of huge expenditure. Chandolia and Ravindra Gupta, who was elected as the Deputy Mayor, said though the BJP councillors would follow the BJP manifesto yet they personally felt that unifying the three civic bodies would be in larger public interest. “I personally feel the trifurcation of the erstwhile MCD has resulted in huge monetary expenditure and human resource. We will discuss the matter with senior party leaders if a BJP-led Government is formed at the Centre,” Chandolia said.
Meanwhile, Chandolia was elected unopposed as the third Mayor of North Delhi Corporation amid protest from the Opposition Congress members who walked out of the House. Congress councillors led by leader of the Opposition Mukesh Goel demanded an audience over issuance to notices to traders in Old Delhi and later staged a walkout even before Chandolia was formally elected. Mayor Chandolia later expressing regret on the walkout said, “I had come to the House thinking that I would thank the Opposition on this occasion but I was sad that Congress members did not even stay for the election proceedings. And, it did not feel good.”
Fifty one-year-old Chandolia had earlier served as the chairman of standing committee in 2010-11 and 2011-12 terms, during the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) before its trifurcation. He was also the first standing committee chairman of the North Delhi Corporation. The five-year tenure for the Mayor post 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. The current year being third term, Chandolia was elected in the SC category.
BJP councillor from Karol Bagh, Ravindra Gupta was also elected unopposed as the Deputy Mayor of North Delhi in the election for the second top-most municipal post. Rekha Gupta and Sanjeev Nayyar of BJP and Prithvi Singh Rathore of Congress were also elected as members of the Standing Committee of the North Corporation. The NDMC has the strength of 104 members, but two vacancies have been created after those councillors resigned after they were elected to the Delhi legislative Assembly. Elections in the SDMC and EDMC for Mayors, Deputy Mayors and members of the corresponding Standing Committee will be held on Tuesday.