The Indian Express 18.04.2013
BJP’s Sarita Choudhary is Mayor of South corporation
BSP councillor Sahi Ram is deputy mayor, Standing Committee members elected.
With the backing of its allies, the BJP has again come to power
in the South corporation with Sarita Choudhary as mayor of the
corporation.
Choudhary, a senior BJP leader, defeated first-time Congress councillor Abhishekh Dutt by 16 votes.
Bhujan Samaj Party’s councillor Sahi Ram was elected deputy
mayor. The seat has been reserved for BSP councillor as part of an
arrangement between the BSP and the BJP. BSP candidate Sahi Ram defeated
Congress’ Praveen Rana by nine votes.
The BJP is the single largest party in South Municipal
Corporation with 44 councillors. It has come to power with the support
of BSP, INLD, JD-U and Independents. This time, NCP’s Ramvir Singh
Bidhuri voted against the Congress.
Besides the 104 councillors, Members of Parliament and Members of
Legislative Assembly also voted for their party’s candidates. Union
Minister Ajay Maken did not turn up to cast his vote.
MLA Mukesh Sharma came late and could not cast vote for the post
of Mayor. From the Congress, MP Sandeep Dikshit, Ramesh Kumar, Parvez
Hashmi and Mahabal Mishra came to cast their votes.
MLAs Arvinder Singh Lovely and Mukesh Sharma from the Congress
cast their votes. From the BJP, MLAs Harsharan Singh Balli, Satprakash
Rana and V K Malhotra also cast votes.
The House also elected three members for the Standing Committee —
Rajesh Gehlot and Subhash Arya from the BJP and Nutan Kochar from the
Congress.
Later, Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel met Mayor Sarita Choudhary and expressed his confidence in the BJP candidates.
Goel said despite the efforts of the Congress to give “a tough fight to the BJP”, the party had emerged victorious
“This victory clearly indicates that all the parties are united
against the anti-people policies of the Congress,” he said. Talking to
Newsline, Mayor Choudhary said her focus would remain on the development
of villages and empowerment of women.
