Inexperience of first-time BJP councillors won't affect EDMC: Mayor

The newly elected EDMC mayor Neema Bhagat today said she will act as a "mother-in-law" and promised that the "inexperience" of her team of first-time councillors will not affect the work of the civic body.
The BJP has 47 members out of the total 64 councilors in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC). Except for Bhagat, all the newly elected party councilors are first timers.
"If the mother-in-law of a household is intelligent, the daughters-in-law work smoothly. I will be that mother-in-law and take everyone along," a confident Bhagat said.
In the MCD polls held last month, the saffron party had replaced all its sitting councilors in 272 wards of the three municipal corporations with new faces.

The party decision was seen as a "master stroke" that not just helped it to brave the anti-incumbency of ruling the civic bodies for the past one decade, but also to materialise a stunning victory over the Aam Admi Party (AAP) and Congress.
BJP managed to win 181 of the total 270 wards where elections were held in April. Elections in two wards were postponed due to death of candidates there.

Bhagat's election as the mayor of East Delhi today was unopposed in the EDMC House. BJP dominates the House with 47 members.
The newly elected councilors were administered oath of office at the heavily fortified EDMC headquarters in Patparganj area here, with police manning the entry gates in view of the agitation by sanitation workers.

The workers boycotted the oath ceremony and protested outside the civic body's headquarters raising their demands, including payment of pending salaries.
Meanwhile, the EDMC mayor appealed the Centre to help the fund-starved corporation while vowing to address the problems faced by the sanitation workers.