New MCD mayor polls due in April: AAP set to repeat Shelly Oberoi, Aaley Mohammad Iqbal as candidates

According to an AAP functionary, “The tenure of the House will end on March 31, and as per rules, fresh elections including for the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, standing committee and ward elections, will take place in April.”

“There is little clarity on the standing committee matter as it is in court, but the mayoral polls will have to take place again. For this, the MCD will send the proposal for fixing of dates to the Delhi government and Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena,” said the party official.

As per the DMC Act, a woman candidate will be appointed as mayor in the first year, a general candidate in the second year, candidates from a scheduled caste in the third year, and a general candidate for the fourth and fifth years.

“It has already been decided that Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal will be retained. Due to the BJP’s conspiracy, the mayor and deputy mayor elections could not take place on the decided date — January 6. If the elections were held peacefully, the current candidates could have continued for at least two months,” said a senior party functionary.

A senior BJP functionary said: “Officially, nothing is decided yet but if the opposition will field a woman, then we will also nominate a woman candidate for the mayor’s post. But candidates may not be repeated in the BJP.”

Oberoi won the election, held in the MCD House meeting on February 22, with 150 votes, against 116 votes of BJP’s Rekha Gupta. Oberoi is a former visiting assistant professor at DU and a first-time councillor. She contested the elections from former Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta’s home turf of East Patel Nagar and defeated candidate Deepali Kumar by 269 votes.

Soon after becoming the Mayor, she had told the media that her focus as the MCD head would be to “clean garbage and fulfil ‘Kejriwal ki 10 guarantees’”. Oberoi in the recent past has visited the landfill sites and inspected ongoing projects including Sultanpuri Flyover.

Iqbal defeated BJP’s Kamal Bagri by a margin of 31 votes to become Deputy Mayor. He is said to be MCD’s first Muslim Deputy Mayor since 1977.

Elections to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and other posts will take place in mid-April. While, the 10 aldermen, all BJP members, appointed will be the same for five years.

The BJP leader said, “They can be removed if the L-G wishes to replace them and appoint someone else.”

The civic polls were held on December 4, and the mayoral polls were to be held on January 6, then January 24, and eventually on February 3. The attempts failed each time following protests from both parties over the voting rights of Aldermen appointed by L-G.