N Corpn gets mayor amid drama

Walkout by Cong after Chandolia's supporters barge into House

A councillor form Karol Bagh, Yogender Chandolia, got his name etched in the list of top civic functionaries by becoming the new mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday. 

But the day will also be known for the ‘first’ walkout staged by any party during an election proceedings in the House. 

As soon as Chandolia was handed over the chair by former Mayor Azad Singh, he started glorifying the Bharatiya Janata Party and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. “The BJP is going to come in power in the Centre,” he said.

Hearing this, his supporters barged into the House meeting of the North Corporation. There was ruckus in the House and the new mayor was heard trying to calm his supporters.

“Please make way for councillors to come forward and greet me,” Chandolia said.But according to the opposition, his supporters started misbehaving with its women councillors. “We were heckled by his (Chandolia’s) supporters. We had to resort to walkout to save our women councillors from indecent behaviour. So all the 28 councillors of Congress walked out of the election proceedings,” leader of opposition Mukesh Goel said. 

“It’s for the first time in the history of MCD elections that any political party has staged a walkout,” he added.

The opposition also questioned the security arrangements that could not stop the supporters from entering the House meeting. “How can these people enter the House meeting?” Goel said.

He blamed the new mayor and leader of the House Mira Aggarwal for losing control on the situation. “Why didn’t the new mayor call the marshals, whose job is to maintain discipline in the House?” Goel added.

After the election process was over, the new mayor said he will call up the leader of opposition and discuss the matter. “I will call Mukesh Goel and try to make him understand that supporters get excited on seeing their leader and behave in such a manner,” Chandolia said.

Chandolia said that his focus is to weed out the problem of waterlogging in some areas under the civic agency’s jurisdiction.

Ravinder Gupta, another councillor from Karol Bagh, was unanimously elected for the post of deputy mayor of the North Corporation.

Councillors Rekha Gupta and Sanjeev Nayyar of BJP and Prithavi Singh Rathore of Congress were elected as members of the standing committee.