Lobbying starts for mayor posts

New Delhi: Intense lobbying has started in the BJP for the post of mayors in all three municipal corporations. Some names are doing rounds in the party circle. The party leadership is likely to finalise names in the next couple of days. The MCD Act stipulates the appointment of a woman councillor as the first mayor during the five-year term of the municipal corporations. The incumbent holds the post for one year.

The BJP won 181 of the 270 wards in the three civic bodies, North, South, East Delhi Municipal Corporations, for which polls were held on Sunday and results were announced on Wednesday.

Half of the 104 wards, each in North Delhi Municipal Corporations (NDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and 64 wards in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), are reserved for women. The BJP managed to win 80 seats reserved for women.

Among the newly elected women councillors, names of state unit vice presidents Kamaljeet Sehrawat and Shikha Rai are doing rounds.

Ms Sehrawat won from the Dwarka B ward in the SDMC with the highest margin. She defeated her nearest AAP rival by a margin of 9,866 votes. Ms Rai, the councillor of Greater Kailash, too registered an impressive victory, defeating the AAP candidate by 8,163 votes.

In the NDMC, names of Delhi BJP women wing chief Poonam Parashar Jha, who has been elected from Mubarakpur Dabas ward, state secretary Preety Agarwal, the councillor from Rohin F Ward, and Veena Virmani, who won from Ramesh Nagar ward and whose husband serves as an OSD to a Union minister, are front runners for the post.

In EDMC, the names of Shakarpur councillor Neetu Tripathi and Neema Bhagat of Geeta Colony are doing rounds.

Party sources said that the BJP leadership may surprised everyone with its choice for mayor candidates.