BJP does a hat-trick in Delhi mayoral polls

BJP continued its supremacy in all three civic bodies as after claiming the mayoral post for North Delhi, the party today won the coveted posts for South and East Delhi too.
BJP's Khushi Ram (40) grabbed the top municipal post for South Delhi in a photo-finish and brought the curtains down on the two-day mayoral polls.
51-year-old Yogender Chandolia was yesterday elected the North Delhi Mayor unopposed.
In SDMC House, Ram defeated his Congress rival Dharamveer Singh by one vote to become South Delhi Mayor as Congress's East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit failed to exercise his franchise, leaving his party red faced.

While Meenakshi (33) of BJP was today elected East Delhi Mayor by defeating Congress' Tulsi by nine votes.
"Of the total 60 votes polled in the EDMC, rival Congress garnered 25 while a single vote was declared invalid," East Delhi Public Relations Officer Yogendra Singh Mann said.

"The same process was adopted for the election of Deputy Mayor of East Delhi and Jai Gopal Verma was declared elected, who defeated Congress' Aas Mohammad," Mann said.
Outgoing Mayor Ram Narayan Dubey and B B Tyagi of BJP and Savita Sharma of Congress were elected unanimously as the members of the standing committee from the EDMC House as only these three nominations were received, he said.

The hat-trick for BJP which has ruled the MCD for the last seven years, did not come easy with the two-way elections for the South turning into a nail-biting contest.
The contest saw Ram garnering 52 votes out of 104 votes polled, against Congress' 51. Dikshit, Congress' East Delhi MP could not vote as he reached after the polling was over, allowing BJP that solitary edge.
The five-year tenure for the Mayor post has five one-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in open category.

The current year being the third term, is reserved for the SC category, since the trifurcation of MCD into three civic bodies -- NDMC, SDMC and EDMC in 2012.
The electorate for the mayoral polls are the elected members to the respective municipal Houses, nominated members from the MLAs from the Delhi Assembly and the seven area MPs.
Since, there is no operational state Delhi government, no MLAs have been nominated and so only the area MPs could vote. But, one MP can vote from two different overlapping regions.