New Delhi: BJP nominee and Delhi University
law professor Rajni Abbi was on Monday elected the Mayor of Delhi
defeating her rival Savita Sharma of Congress by 88 votes.
49-year-old Abbi, a first-time councillor from Mukherjee
Nagar ward, got 170 votes while Sharma secured 82 votes in the
election held at a special meeting of the Municipal
Corporation of Delhi. Eight votes were invalid.
The election of Mayor witnessed some stormy scenes
earlier with Congress members objecting to Abbi's candidature
alleging that she was holding an office of profit as she was a
Delhi University professor.
BJP members claimed that she had taken permission from the
DU before contesting the MCD elections.
The new Mayor, who replaced incumbent Prithvi Raj Sawhney,
has become the second woman in the post in BJP's five-year
term in the corporation. Arti Mehra was the Mayor of Delhi for
two years in succession from 2007.
The BJP had earlier witnessed a brief rebellion in its
ranks as councillor Narain Singh had also filed his nomination
for the post of Mayor, but was persuaded to withdraw.
Abbi is an associate professor in the faculty of law in
the DU. She is also an alumnus of the same university. She is
a specialist in commercial and consumer laws and had been a
topper in LLB and LLM exams.
She had earlier said if elected, her priorities will be to
work on a mission mode to ensure a clean Delhi, improve the
image of the MCD and strongly oppose its proposed division
into five parts.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 17:49