BJP's Raja Iqbal Singh Elected New Mayor Of Delhi

BJP leader Raja Iqbal Singh has been elected the new mayor of Delhi, winning after getting 133 votes against his Congress opponent's eight. The Aam Aadmi Party had decided to boycott the elections. 

The Congress nominee was Mandeep Singh.

Jai Bhagwan Yadav of the BJP is also the new deputy mayor after the Congress' Ariba Khan withdrew her name.

With Friday's victory, the BJP has come to power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi after two years. The success comes after the party's thumping win in the Delhi Assembly elections in which it won 48 of 70 seats, reducing the AAP to just 22 from its earlier tally of 62. The fact that the BJP is also in power at the Centre has given rise to talk of a 'triple-engine government' of the party in the national capital.

The current strength of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is 238 and 12 seats are vacant because some councillors got elected as MLAs and another as an MP. The BJP has 117 councillors - up from 104 in 2022 - while the AAP has 113, down from 134. The Congress has just eight.

The electoral college for the mayoral election includes these 238 councillors, 10 MPs (seven from the Lok Sabha and three from the Rajya Sabha) and 14 MLAs - with 11 from the BJP and 3 from the AAP being nominated by Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta.

Of the votes cast on Friday, one was declared invalid.

Speaking to news agency PTI on Thursday, Mr Singh - who was the leader of the opposition in the MCD and is also a former mayor - had said the people of Delhi have trusted the BJP to fix the Capital's problems.

"AAP has already accepted its defeat. We will eliminate corruption and complete all the pending work that was stalled over the past two years," he said.

AAP councillor and former Mayor Shelly Oberoi and Leader of the House Mukesh Goyal had also held a press conference on Thursday.

"We will completely boycott the election," Ms Oberoi had said, accusing the BJP of turning the civic polls into a "farce" with its "triple engine power."