Subhash Arya beats Farhad Suri of the Congress by 19 votes

A veteran of Delhi’s municipal politics, Subhash Arya, was elected the Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Friday, beating the Congress’ Farhad Suri by 19 votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party, whose five MLAs were also eligible to vote, decided to stay away, ending weeks of speculation on whether they would vote for the Congress or the BJP. Last year, the BJP managed to win by only one vote.

Mr. Arya, a five-time councillor, has been the Leader of the House in both the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the SDMC.

Recently, he was the chairperson of the SDMC Standing Committee. Mr. Arya got 60 and Mr. Suri got 41 of the 101 votes polled.

A total of 107 councillors, MLAs and MPs were eligible to vote.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s MLAs abstained from voting, as did councillor Deshraj Raghav, who was elected as an Independent in the SDMC but joined the AAP later. BJP Lok Sabha MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Maheish Girri, Parvesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri as well as Congress Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi also cast their votes.

BJP candidate Kuldeep Solanki was elected the Deputy Mayor after getting 69 votes, 38 more than the Congress’ Indu, who got 31 votes. One vote was disqualified.

The BJP’s Ashish Sood and Dharamvir Awana as well as Pushpa Singh of the Congress were elected as members of the Standing Committee.

Mr. Arya said increasing transparency and improving e-governance would be at the top of his agenda as Mayor.