Having demolished its political opponents in the municipal elections, the Bharatiya Jananta Party (BJP) has now started the process to elect mayors for the three municipal corporations.
Names of Shikha Rai and Kamaljeet Sehrawat for South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), Preeti Aggarwal and Anju Jain for North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Neena Bhagat for the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) are being discussed by the BJP leadership.
According to the Delhi Municipal Act, in the first year a woman councillor is to be made Mayor. Also, the tenure of the Mayor has been fixed for one year with Mayoral election to be held every year.
A senior BJP leader told The Pioneer, “Vice-president of Delhi BJP Kamaljeet Sehrawat, who won by the highest margin in the city, is the first choice to become the Mayor of SDMC.
However, she is facing a tough competition from Shikha Rai, also vice president of Delhi BJP, who has won from Kasturba Nagar ward.”
It may be noted that Seherawat has been an active member of the BJP. “She led the BJP demonstration at New Delhi Railway Station while Arvind Kejriwal was leaving for Punjab,” said a BJP official.
Preeti Aggarwal and Anju Jain are the hot favourites for the post of North Corporation’s Mayor while Neena Bhagat is the top choice of BJP to head the EDMC. “Name of Himanshi Pandey was also in the contention but she is just 27-year-old and is inexperienced,” a Delhi BJP official said.
BJP enjoys absolute majority in all the three corporations with victory in 181 wards out of total 270 wards.
The corporation-wise tally for the BJP: SDMC 70, NMC 64 and EDMC 47 as against AAP’s 16, 21 and 11 respectively. The Congress finished last with 12, 15 and 3 wards in SDMC, NMC and EDMC respectively. It may be recalled that the BJP had won 138 wards in the 2012 municipal elections.