The Hindu : New Delhi News : New Councillors to take oath today

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Monday, Jul 12, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

New Councillors to take oath today

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 11. The six municipal Councillors who were elected to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi last month would take the oath on Monday.

The Delhi Mayor, A. R. Verma, would administer them the oath of secrecy at the start of the House meeting at Town Hall on Monday afternoon, said the Municipal Secretary, V. S. Sharma. "This is the first item on the agenda," he said.

The six new members are Amrit Lal, Anuja Popli, Mohinder Kumar and Brahm Swarup Sharma of the Congress, Meghraj Chandela of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Surender Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

With this the strength of the ruling Congress in the 134-elected member House would increase from 106 to 110, while the BJP strength would rise from 17 to 18 and of the JMM from one to two. While the Janata Dal (Secular) has two members, the Bahujan Samaj Party has one member and one Councillor is independent.

Amrit Lal would now represent Tri Nagar ward. Atma Ram Gupta, who was murdered in August 2002, represented the seat. From the neighbouring Tri Nagar, Anuja Popli would be the new Councillor.

The seat was declared vacant after Sharda Jain, winner from here on a Congress ticket in the 2002 municipal elections, did not attend House meetings for three consecutive months as she was lodged in Tihar Jail on charges of being involved in the murder of Atma Ram Gupta.

By-elections to the rest of the four seats were held after their Councillors were elected to the Delhi Assembly in the December polls. Mohinder Kumar would now represent rural Nangloi, which was earlier won by Bijender Singh of the Congress. Instead of Dayanand Chandela, his son Meghraj Chandela would now represent Khyala ward.

Brahm Swarup Sharma would now represent the Nand Nagri seat, which was previously represented by former Standing Committee Chairman and the Leader of the House, Ram Babu Sharma.

Finally Surender Singh would represent Timarpur, which in the last election was won by Surinder Pal Singh Bittoo of the Congress.

The by-elections for these seats were held on June 27 and results were declared on June 29. After a notification, the State Election Commissioner, M. P. Tyagi, sent the list of new Councillors to the Municipal Secretary.

This is for the first time in the recent past that a municipal by-election has been held.

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