New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday decided to field its Shalimar Bagh councillor Rekha Gupta as its Delhi Mayor candidate to challenge AAP’s Shelly Oberoi in the January 6 elections. The BJP has also named Kamal Bagri as deputy mayor candidate as well as Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral and Pankaj Luthra for standing committee member posts, said Delhi BJP media cell head Harish Khurana. All the party candidates will file their nominations later in the day.
The AAP has a clear majority in the 250-member Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House. Some party leaders claimed that an intense contest could be witnessed for the mayor as well as deputy mayor posts since the anti-defection law does not apply to the MCD and floor crossing could be possible.
The AAP ended the BJP’s 15-year rule in the MCD winning 134 of the 250 wards in the civic body polls earlier this month. The BJP managed to win 104 wards. Later, Mundka councillor Gajendra Daral also joined the BJP. Though the Delhi BJP is unlikely to win the post of mayor and deputy mayor, it will try to win three posts of members of the crucial standing committee of the MCD.
The election of the mayor is held through a secret ballot and councillors are free to vote for any candidate since the anti-defection law does not apply to it. The voters for the election of mayor, include 250 elected councillors, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi and 15 MLAs of the Legislative Assembly.
The Delhi Assembly Speaker has nominated 13 AAP and one BJP MLA to the MCD. The total votes for the mayoral election are 274. The number game favours AAP having 150 votes against 113 of the BJP.
The Congress has nine councillors while two others are independents in the MCD House. The election for the post of mayor, deputy mayor and standing committee members will take place on January 6. There are 18 members in the standing committee of the MCD out of which 12 are elected from the zones and six from the House.
Bureau Report
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