NewDelhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced that Shelly Oberoi will be its candidate for mayor, weeks after it won the Delhi municipal election, defeating the BJP.
Aale Mohammad Iqbal has been named by the party for the post of deputy mayor.
Shelly Oberoi, a former Delhi University professor, is a first-time councillor who won the Delhi civic body election earlier this month from a BJP stronghold. She scored the top job after AAP promised a woman mayor for Delhi. “My priority is cleaning up Delhi, making it shine. We will make Delhi a smart city,” Dr Oberoi.
Aale Mohammad Iqbal is the son of six-time MLA and AAP leader Shoaib Iqbal. He won by the biggest margin – more than 17,000 votes.
AAP won the Delhi Municipal Corporation election on December 8, ending the BJP’s 15-year dominance over the civic body.
AAP won 134 of 250 civic wards, the BJP won 104, and the Congress took nine seats.
With AAP winning a clear majority, the BJP announced that it would not contest the mayor’s post as reports suggested. The mayor would be from AAP and the BJP would play the role of a “strong opposition”, said the BJP’s Adesh Gupta, who has since quit as the party’s Delhi chief.
“The AAP has got the peoples’ mandate, so they can have their mayor. We extend them good wishes,” Mr Gupta said.
The mayor is elected by all 250 municipal councillors, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs of Delhi, besides 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi assembly Speaker.
On the day of the election results, BJP leaders like Amit Malviya had talked about a contest. “Now over to electing a mayor for Delhi. It will all depend on who can hold the numbers in a close contest, which way the nominated councillors vote etc. Chandigarh has a BJP mayor, for instance,” tweeted Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s IT department.
In Chandigarh earlier this year, AAP emerged as the single-largest party by winning 14 of the 35 civic wards but the BJP secured the mayor’s post.
Bureau Report
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