BJP's Sarita Choudhry wins SDMC Mayor poll

Riding on the support of BSP and independents, BJP's Sarita Choudhry today trounced Abhishek Dutt of Congress to become the Mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation where her party does not enjoy majority.
Choudhry polled 64 out of a total of 112 votes polled while Dutt got 48.
Last year also, BJP candidate Savita Gupta had won the election bagging 66 votes.
In the house of 104 councillors, BJP is the single largest group with 44 members and has the support of BSP (6), INLD (3), JDU (1), besides a majority of the 14 independents.
Congress has 29, NCP 14 and RLD and SP one each.

Besides 104 councillors, five each MPs and MLAs were eligible to vote in the poll. Union Minister Ajay Maken and Delhi MLA Mukesh Sharma did not cast their votes.

From Congress, MPs Parvez Hashmi, Ramesh Kumar, Sandeep Dikshit and Mahabal Mishra and Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely voted. BJP MLAs H S Balli, Satprakash Rana and V K Malhotra exercised their franchise.
With Choudhry's victory, BJP has won the Mayor election in all the three municipal corporations in the capital.
BJP's Azad Singh and Ram Narain Dubey have won the elections for mayor post in North Delhi and East Delhi corporations respectively.

According to provisions under Sub-Section (1) of Section 35 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the Corporation shall at its first meeting in each year elect one of its members to be the mayor and another member to be the deputy mayor of the corporation.