Delhi Mayor Election: In a tussle between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, Delhi’s next mayor will be chosen today. BJP, which lost the civic elections after three terms, says it’ll win.
Shelly Oberoi is Arvind Kejriwal’s candidate for the top job. Rekha Gupta of the BJP is challenging her. Ashu Thakur is AAP’s back-up candidate. Aaley Muhammad Iqbal of the AAP and Jalaj Kumar and Kamal Bagri of the BJP are candidates for deputy mayor.
There’s a row over BJP councillor Satya Sharma’s appointment as presiding officer. AAP recommended Mukesh Goyal in Delhi Mayor Election, but the Lieutenant Governor picked Mr Sharma instead.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the Lieutenant Governor, the Centre’s representative in Delhi, of trying to influence the election and deliberately picking BJP-friendly candidates.
The senior member of the House is always nominated as Speaker or Presiding Officer. But BJP is hell bent on destroying all democratic traditions and institutions,” tweeted Saurabh Bhardwaj, an AAP MLA.
Mukesh Goyal is the most senior councilor. Satya Sharma was the former mayor of East Delhi Municipal Corporation. Adarsh Nagar councillor Goyal is now AAP’s Leader of the House.
Having won two consecutive assembly elections in Delhi, AAP won the civic body this time, ending the BJP’s 15-year rule. 134 wards were won by the party, which focused on garbage.
The BJP, which has 104 wards, says the mayor’s race is open. The party fielded its candidate after initially saying it wouldn’t run.
As its Delhi unit unanimously decided not to support AAP or the BJP, the Congress, which won only nine seats, won’t participate in the election.
This was the first civic election in Delhi after wards were redrawn – something AAP accused the BJP of doing to avoid defeat. Although the BJP hadn’t won an election in Delhi in more than two decades, it stayed in power for 15 years.
Delhi’s mayors serve five single-year terms on a rotating basis, with the first year reserved for women, the second for open candidates, the third for reserved candidates, and the last two for open candidates.
