Preeti Aggarwal to be North Delhi Municipal Corporation mayor, Vijay Bhagat her deputy

BJP councillor from Rohini, Preeti Aggarwal, who filed nomination for the post of mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday, is likely to be elected unopposed on May 18. Vijay Kumar Bhagat, who won from the Swami Sharda Nand Colony ward on a BJP ticket, was also the only candidate to file nomination for the post of deputy mayor in the north corporation.

BJP councillor from Rohini, Preeti Aggarwal, who filed nomination for the post of mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday, is likely to be elected unopposed on May 18.

BJP councillor from Rohini, Preeti Aggarwal, (garlanded) who filed nomination for the post of mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday, is likely to be elected unopposed on May 18.(Handout)

With candidates of no other political party filing nominations for the post on the last day, the mayoral elections on May 18 now remains a formality.

The BJP has won 181 out of 270 seats in the recently concluded civic body elections that was conducted on April 23.

Vijay Kumar Bhagat, who won from the Swami Sharda Nand Colony ward on a BJP ticket, was also the only candidate to file nomination for the post of deputy mayor in the north corporation.

Aggarwal, whose first test as a mayor would be to contain the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in Delhi, said, “My goal is to ensure 3S in the corporation— Swacchata, Shiksha and Swasth, (cleanliness, education and health) in North Delhi areas.”

“We are already running awareness campaigns in corporation schools and meetings have been held with sanitation workers, during which they were asked to undertake cleanliness drives on a larger scale,” she said.

Tilakraj Kataria from Shalimar Bagh (south) filed nomination for the post of chairman of standing committee and Ramesh Kumar Valmiki from East Patel Nagar filed his nomination for vice chairman of standing committee. Besides, BJP councillors Jai Prakash, Jayendra Dabas, Aadesh Kumar Gupta have also filed their nominations for members of standing committee.

The north corporation will elect its mayor, deputy mayor and six members of standing committee on May 18, out of which the mayor, deputy mayor and four standing committee members will be from the BJP and once each from the Congress and the AAP.

Seema Tahira from Congress and Vikas Goel from AAP have filed nominations for the post of members of standing committee.

The last day for filing of nominations for south and east corporations is Friday with mayoral election for south being schedueld on May 19 and for east on May 22.

The three Corporations —South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and North Delhi Municipal Corporation—will have female mayors as the seat is reserved for women candidates as per the Delhi Municipal Act.

Sources in the BJP said that the party wants to take care of both caste and regional arithmetic while choosing a mayor. Since the north corporation seat has gone to a member of the baniya community, a poorvanchali face could be preferred in east Delhi and a Jat or Punjabi in south Delhi.