On Thursday, April 11, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari nominated three councilors – two women, Anju Kamalkant and Sunita Kangra, and a Sikh hailing from the Dalit community, Avtar Singh, for the mayoral elections in three municipal corporations in the national capital.
Avtar Singh, a mallah Sikh will represent the Civil Lines ward. Expressing confidence over his nomination, Delhi BJP President Rajesh Bhatia said that this Singh will create history by becoming a mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
He said, “No Dalit Sikh has ever become mayor of Delhi’s civic bodies.”
A senior SDMC official also said that the election for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and three members of the standing committee of the SDMC will be held on 26 April.
He added that the last date to submit nominations is 18 April. The mayoral polls in EDMC and NDMC would be held on 29 April.
"This year, as per the rotation basis, the mayoral seat is reserved for the SC category," he said.
The other two, Anju Kamalkant and Sunita Kangra, belong to the SC category and have been nominated as the mayoral candidates from East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) respectively.
Sanjay Goyal (EDMC), Yogesh Verma (NDMC) and Raj Dutt Gahlot (SDMC) have also been nominated as candidates for deputy mayor elections.
BJP has a majority in the three civic bodies. Two councilors of the party were also nominated for election to the standing committees of the respective municipal corporations.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act provides for election of mayor and deputy mayor from among the councillors of the corporations in the first meeting of the House every year.
As per the act, the mayors and deputy mayors get an annual term in the cities of union territories.
Meanwhile, BJP is battling it out in the second phase of 17th Lok Sabha elections that kicked off on Thursday, 18 April. 11 states and one union territory is witnessing polling that will go on till 6 pm in the day. However, New Delhi will go into polling in the sixth phase on 12 May.
(With inputs from PTI)
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