BJP, AAP gear up for Delhi’s mayoral poll to be held today

Stage is set for the high-stakes Delhi mayoral election on Wednesday which will be a direct contest between incumbent Shelly Oberoi from the AAP and BJP leader Shikha Rai.
The AAP is the ruling party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The two candidates, current mayor Oberoi and BJP’s Rai, had earlier filed their nominations for the Delhi mayoral poll slated to be held on 26 April, officials had said.
Oberoi was elected as the Delhi mayor on February 22. She had defeated BJP’s Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes. Oberoi polled 150 votes, while Gupta received 116 of the total 266 votes polled. The voting was held at the Civic Centre — the headquarters of the MCD, where the fresh mayoral poll will be held. 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 city gets a new mayor after the end of a financial year. Oberoi will continue to hold charge till a new mayor is elected, official sources said on 3 April. Aam Aadmi Party’s Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal filed their nominations earlier this month for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor for a possible second consecutive term, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party exuding confidence that its candidates are poised for
a win.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too has entered the fray and senior party leader Rai, the councillor from the Greater Kailash-1 ward, is its candidate for the mayoral poll.
Four nominations were received by the municipal secretary’s office — two each for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor. The last day for filing nominations for the mayoral poll was 18 April.