BJP's Harshdeep Malhotra elected new East Delhi Mayor

BJP continued its triumph in the mayoral polls as the ruling party's candidate Harshdeep Malhotra today defeated Congress rival Rekha Rani by a margin of 17 votes to be elected the mayor of East Delhi.
While Malhotra polled 40 votes, Rani could only get 23. Out of the total of 64 votes, one was declared invalid, officials said.
The elections for the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and three members of the standing committee in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation were held today at the EDMC's headquarters in Patparganj here.
BJP also won the post of Deputy Mayor in the 64-member EDMC House, as Asha Singh defeated her Congress rival Aas Mohammad.

Members of Parliament of the area, Maheish Giri and Manoj Tiwari also cast their votes as member of the EDMC.
Malhotra after being elected said, "EDMC will try to improve its financial situation."

The corporation demands from Delhi government to table the recommendations of the 4th Delhi Finance Commission report, which advocates for better global share for local bodies, he said.
Last Friday, South Delhi Municipal Corporation's outgoing Standing Committee Chairman Subhash Arya was elected as its Mayor, in a contes that saw him defeating former Mayor and Congress senior leader Farhad Suri by a margin of 19 votes.
The post of Deputy Mayor (South Delhi) had also gone to BJP, with its candidate Kuldeep Solanki defeating Congress' Indu by a margin 38 votes.

The electorate for the mayoral polls are the elected members to the respective municipal Houses, nominated members from the MLAs in the Delhi Assembly and the area MPs.
The post of Mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in open category.
Last year Meenakshi was elected as East Delhi Mayor, making her the youngest candidate to have won the top municipal post.
Manoj Tyagi and Lata Gupta of BJP and Varyam Kaur of Congress were elected unanimously as members of the standing committee of the EDMC today.

The cash-strapped EDMC has been running into losses worth several hundred crores and bringing the civic body out of the red, would be one of the major challenges for the new Mayor.