BJP-ruled Delhi civic bodies get new Mayors for next one year

New Delhi, June 16 With less than one year left for the Delhi municipal elections scheduled in 2022, the national capital's three municipal agencies on Wednesday found new Mayors along with new faces in some other prominent posts for the next one year.

The Mayors of Delhi's three municipal bodies -- North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) were elected unopposed as the names for each post has already been announced by the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP has been in a majority in all the three municipal bodies for the last 15 years.

Raja Iqbal Singh, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Councillor from GTB Nagar municipal ward, has been elected unopposed to the Mayoral post of North Delhi Municipal Corporation. In 2017, both the BJP and the SAD had contested the municipal elections as allies. While the BJP bagged 179 seats, the SAD won five seats.

Mukesh Suryan, (Councillor from Sagarpur West municipal ward) will be the new Mayor of SDMC. Shyam Sunder Aggarwal (Councillor from Raghuvarpura municipal ward) was also elected unopposed to the Mayoral post in EDMC.

After taking over, the newly elected Mayors said they will stress upon issues like sanitation, education and increasing multiple revenue resources to improve the financial condition of the civic bodies.

"We need to focus on a better revenue generation plan to deal with the financial situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and try to make the SDMC area self sustainable. We also need to focus on providing modern amenities to the residents in the SDMC area," said Mukesh Suryan, Mayor SDMC.

The newly elected Mayors of EDMC and NDMC also had almost the same vision for the next one year.

In Delhi, the five-year tenure for the Mayor's post sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second open category and the remaining three also in open category. The last municipal election was conducted in Delhi in 2017.