The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress councillors on Thursday filed nominations for Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts from three MCDs for the upcoming Municipal elections.
Interestingly as the mayor race heats up, not a single nomination was filed from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the coveted posts. The BJP has exuded confidence about winning mayoral polls scheduled for the next week.
In South MCD, Standing Committee chairman Subhash Arya filed nomination for Mayor's post who is contesting against SDMC leader of Opposition Farhad Suri from the Congress.
BJP's Kuldeep Solanki will be contesting against Congress's Indu for Deputy Mayoral post. The fate of the two parties will be sealed on April 24. While the BJP enjoys a considerable majority in EDMC and North MCD, the South wicket seems to be a sticky one for the party.
In 2013 Mayoral elections, the BJP won the Mayor seat by just one vote whereas they lost the Deputy Mayor seat to the Congress. Of the total 97 House members, there are presently 42 councillors of the BJP. With five MlAs and MPs also having the right to vote, the strength goes up to 106. The party needs at least 53 votes to secure a majority.
In the North MCD, Ravinder Gupta of the BJP will be contesting against Harsh Sharma of the Congress. SThe BJP's Neelam Goel and Congress's Guddi Devi filed their nominations for the post of Deputy Mayor.
Currently, there are total 104 seats; 62 councillors of the BJP and 28 from the Congress, six from the BSP and five others. In EDMC, the face-off will be between BJP's Harshdeep Malhotra and Rekha Rani of the Congress for Mayoral post. While Asha Singh of the BJP and the Congress's Aas Mohammad filed their nominations for the post of Deputy Mayor of East Delhi.
Candidates from both the parties filed nominations for the polls. “We are fighting the mayoral polls with confidence and fielding candidates for the mayor, deputy mayors and members of the standing committee posts,” Delhi BJP Chief and councillor Satish Upadhyay said.