Man behind Jahangirpuri demolition drive appointed BJP’s MCD body leader

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday said it has appointed Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh, a former Mayor of the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation, as the leader of its MCD councillor body.

Singh hit the headlines last year for conducting a demolition drive in Jahangirpuri.

Jai Bhagwan Yadav has been appointed as the deputy leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Municipal Corporation of Delhi councillor body, it said.

In a letter dated June 21 to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “The Delhi BJP has appointed Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh as the leader of the BJP’s MCD councilor body. Jai Bhagwan Yadav will be the deputy leader.”

Singh is the councillor from GTB Nagar. He was the Mayor of the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation and had received flak for carrying out the demolition drive in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.

Bulldozers razed several structures in the area as part of the anti-encroachment drive in April.

The exercise continued for around an hour and a half even after the Supreme Court issued a directive to stop it.

Jahangirpuri witnessed clashes between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in early April, leaving eight police personnel and a resident injured.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls held in December last year. It ended the BJP’s 15-year-old rule at the civic body by bagging 134 of the 250 wards. The BJP won 104 wards.