Aam Aadmi Party’s leader Shelly Oberoi was re-elected as Delhi’s mayor on Wednesday without a contest after BJP competitor Shikha Rai withdrew her name from consideration.
Rai said to the House that she took this action because standing committee election of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which is the highest decision-making body had not yet taken place.
Following Soni Pal, the BJP candidate, withdrawing her name from consideration, Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, the current deputy mayor, was also granted a second term. Iqbal and Pal were the two rival applicants for the job of deputy mayor.
The incumbent Oberoi and challenger Rai were expected to face off directly in the Delhi mayoral race. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now in power in MCD.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Congratulations Shelly and Aley on again becoming mayor and deputy mayor, this time unopposed. Best wishes to both. People have huge expectations from us. Work hard to meet their expectations.”
Durgesh Pathak, an AAP MLA and the party’s MCD in-charge, asserted that the BJP and its council members surrendered in front of Kejriwal’s AAP at a press conference held following the end of the House sessions.
“For the first time, Modi’s BJP surrendered in front of AAP. They did not even have the energy to fight mayor or deputy mayor election,” he claimed, adding the BJP had “insulted” Mukesh Goyal two months ago, who today was the presiding officer in the House.
The BJP spokesperson said, “It has been decided to withdraw the nominations despite our best efforts as the AAP is not ready to make MCD functional by allowing the formation of standing committee and ward committees.”
Interacting with the media, Mayor Oberoi said, “We want to thank Arvind Kejriwal, all councillors and the people of Delhi. We will fulfil the promises made to the people of Delhi. I promise I would continue to do all the good works and we will work with honesty to address the issues related to parks, roads and schools.”
Deputy Mayor Iqbal and leader of House Mukesh Goyal were also present during the press conference held at the Civic Centre, the headquarters of the MCD. “I want to thank the Delhi chief and assure the people of Delhi that fulfilling the 10 guarantees made by him is our responsibility,” Iqbal said.
The municipal House proceedings were short and the next House will now take place on 2 May, a senior official said.
On February 22, Oberoi was chosen as the city’s mayor for the first time in a fourth attempt after the initial round of voting for nominated members caused a commotion. By receiving 150 votes, she outperformed Rekha Gupta of the BJP by a margin of 34 votes. Gupta received 116 of the 266 total votes cast.
The post of mayor in the national capital sees five single-year terms on a rotational basis with the first year reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category and the remaining two again for the open category.
The mayor poll proceedings soon got underway, but before that BJP’s Rai made a short speech in the House. “I’m standing here as a worker of the biggest party in this country. Our party has always believed in the democratic process, which is why they nominated me for the election to the mayoral post. However, my party never wanted any position. But in the last few days, we’ve seen that the MCD’s standing committee is not being formed without which the MCD remains incomplete,” she told the House.
There is still a lot of uncertainty around how the Standing Committee’s members will be chosen. The Delhi High Court stayed the re-election of six members of the MCD standing committee, which was set for 27 February, on the grounds that the mayor had at least, overstepped her authority by calling for a new election.
On April 24, the court gave the city mayor permission to submit a consolidated reply in response to a challenge to the re-election of six MCD standing committee members.
Rai stated today, “We are calling for the mayoral election to coincide with the election for the standing committee. I’m therefore withdrawing my name from the mayoral race in light of the current circumstances.” She represents the Greater Kailash-1 ward in south Delhi as a councillor.
