Delhi Civic Body Poll Tomorrow To Be Direct Contest Between AAP, BJP

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 April 26, officials had said.

Ms Oberoi was elected as the Delhi mayor on February 22. She had defeated BJP's Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes. Shelly Oberoi polled 150 votes, while Ms 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.

Shelly Oberoi will continue to hold charge till a new mayor is elected, official sources said on April 3.

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 April 18.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva has nominated second-time councillor Rai for the mayoral poll. Mr Sachdeva has also nominated Soni Pandey, an activist of the Purvanchal Morcha and the councillor from ward number 249, for the deputy mayor's post.

Former North Delhi mayor Jai Prakash said the presiding officer for the mayoral poll will be chosen by the lieutenant governor.

"Once the term of a mayor ends, the new mayor is to be elected at the first MCD meeting, according to the norm. Similar is the process to elect the deputy mayor. After the start of the financial year 2023-24, the meeting scheduled to be held on April 26 will be the first one in the new financial year," he said.

Delhi had got a mayor on February 22 in the fourth attempt since the earlier elections were stalled amid a ruckus over voting rights being given to nominated members.

According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, the mayor and the deputy mayor are to be elected in the very first session of the House after the civic polls.

The civic polls held on December 4 last year were the first after the three corporations were unified into the MCD and a fresh delimitation exercise was carried out, reducing the number of wards from 272 in 2012 to 250.

The AAP had emerged victorious in the high-stakes polls.

The unification of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (64 wards) happened last year, with a notification issued to that effect in May.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)