Prithvi Raj Sawhney is new mayor

NEW DELHI: Prithvi Raj Sawhney, a BJP councillor who is a former teacher, was on Friday elected the new mayor of Delhi after which he declared that completion of Commonwealth Games projects within a month will be his top priority.
Sawhney, who represents Janak Puri (South) ward in the MCD House, defeated his rival Tulsi Ram Sablania of Congress by a comfortable margin of 90 votes in the elections held at a meeting of Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
While 68-year-old Sawhney, who was Chairman of MCD Education Committee, secured 178 votes, Congress candidate and East Patel Nagar councillor Sablania managed only 88 votes. BSP's Hari Chand Kardam had withdrawn just before the race. Nine votes have been declared invalid.
The strength of BJP is 172, followed by Congress (73), BSP (16) and Independents (10) in the 271 member House. Sawhney, who will be the 24th Mayor of the city, replaces incumbent Kanwar Sain, also a BJP councillor.
BJP corporator from Matiala, Rajesh Gehlot was elected as Deputy Mayor without voting as Congress did not press for a division after BSP candidate Sanjay Gupta withdrew from the contest. Congress leader J K Sharma said it will accept the verdict in the Mayoral race in the elections for Deputy Mayor too, for which the party's candidate was Saranjit Sharma.
Yogendra Chandolia and Sarita Choudhary of BJP and Jai Kisha Sharma of Congress were elected unopposed to the three vacant posts of members of the MCD Standing Committee.
The new Mayor said completion of all MCD projects related to Commonwealth Games by May 30 will be his top priority.
"I will review the status of all projects. The challenge before us is to complete the work within a month. We want to present a clean and green Delhi before the visitors from abroad who will come for the Games in October. Not only the prestige of Delhi but that of the country is at stake," Sawhney told reporters soon after his election.
The mayor said he expects adequate cooperation from the Delhi government for Games-related works.
He also said he will give special focus to improving the sanitation standards of the city and ensure presence of adequate number of sanitary inspectors in each municipal ward.
Sawhney, who taught in a Jammu College and in different schools of Directorate of Education for 30 years, said education will also be a key focus area for him.
He claimed that under the Right to Education Act, MCD will be given the right to run middle schools. Till 1970, MCD used to operate 400 middle and 11 senior secondary schools but afterwards it was asked to run only primary schools.