New Delhi:
After its municipal triumphs in South and East corporations, BJP today clinched the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of North Delhi as well, thus ending its phenomenal runs in the mayoral polls on an all-win note.
All three civic bodies have been BJP-led for past several years and the party had swept the mayoral polls last year too.
In North Delhi Municipal Corporation, BJP candidate Ravinder Gupta today defeated Congress rival Harsh Sharma by a margin of 41 votes, the highest victory margin for the post, among the three elections.
While Mr Gupta polled 67 votes, Mr Sharma could only get 26.
Out of the total of 95 votes, two were declared invalid, an NDMC official said.
On April 24, BJP's veteran leader in North Delhi Municipal Corporation Subhash Arya trounced Congress leader and former Mayor Farhad Suri by a gap of 19 votes.
The winning margin was doubled in the Deputy Mayor polls in the SDMC, as BJP's winning candidate Kuldeep Solanki bagged 69 votes while Congress' Indu could get just 31, with the big margin fuelling speculation of "cross-voting".
71-year-old Arya, currently the chairman of SDMC's standing committee, polled 60 votes, while Suri, currently the Leader of the Opposition received 41.
Last year's SDMC mayoral polls had seen Congress losing to BJP by a solitary margin, unlike the easy victory this time for the ruling party.
BJP continued its mayoral triumph in East Delhi Municipal Corporation yesterday, with its candidate Harshdeep Malhotra defeating Congress rival Rekha Rani by a margin of 17 votes.
While Malhotra polled 40 votes, Rani could only get 23. Out of the total of 64 votes, one was declared invalid.
While area MPs from BJP and Congress queued up to cast their votes in their respective corporation, all AAP MLAs chose to stay away from the polls.
All three BJP-led municipal corporations have been financially-strained and have been facing corruption charges from the opposition.
Arya, soon after assuming the post of South Delhi Mayor had said that "the top priorities would be to keep the SDMC independent and free of corruption."
Besides, the Mayor positions, BJP also swept the post of Deputy Mayor in all the three municipal corporations, signalling its political rejuvenation in Delhi, after being reduced to a humiliating tally of three by a resurgent AAP in last Assembly polls.
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.
The electorate for the mayoral polls is the elected members to the respective municipal Houses, nominated members from the MLAs in the Delhi Assembly and the area MPs.