Baffling situation of one city, three mayors

With elections to the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi over, the Capital is all set to have three new mayors but this could spell trouble for countries inviting them for various functions and programmes. Neelam Pandey and Hamari Jamatia report.

With elections to the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi over, the Capital is all set to have three new mayors but this could spell trouble for countries inviting them for various functions and programmes.

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Take the example of South Korea, which sent an invitation to the MCD a fortnight ago, asking the mayor to attend an environmental summit on May 3.

The hosts were baffled on being told that as the MCD has been split into three, they need to specify which mayor they want. “Nowhere in the country do we have three mayors in a city. Such problems are going to take place in future,” said an MCD official.

Now that the BJP has secured a majority in the east and north Delhi corporations and emerged the largest party in south Delhi, intense lobbying for the coveted mayoral posts has begun.

With the first year reserved for a woman mayor in each of the three corporations, the names doing the rounds for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation are those of former mayor Rajni Abbi, Shobha Vijendra, who is the wife of Delhi BJP president Vijendra Gupta, senior councillor Meera Aggarwal and Rekha Gupta.

For the south, three-time councillors Savita Gupta and Sarita Choudhury are vying with each other while for the east, BJP councillors Lata Gupta, Kalpana Jain and Usha Shastri are in the race for the top post.