Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Shelly Oberoi on Wednesday defeated BJP’s Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes to become the mayor of Delhi. While Oberoi polled 150 votes, Gupta received 116 votes out of the total 266 votes polled.
Voting at the Dr. SP Mukherjee civic centre in Delhi happened after three failed attempts, as elections were stalled amid ruckus in the MCD House over voting rights being given to nominated members, also known as aldermen.
The party’s Mohammad Iqbal was elected as the deputy mayor of Delhi. He defeated BJP’s Kaml Bagri by a margin of 31 votes, said officials. Iqbal bagged 147 votes against Bagri’s 116.
The mayoral election is being conducted following a Supreme Court order which on February 17 had ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the MCD to fix the date of elections for the mayor, the deputy mayor and the members of the standing committee of the civic body.
Last week, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to convene the municipal House for holding the mayoral election following the apex court order.
The court issued the order after hearing a plea moved by the ruling Oberoi sought an early conduct of the election.
The AAP had emerged as a clear winner in the December 4 MCD polls, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP’s 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal House.