Rekha Gupta named as BJP's Delhi Mayor Candidate
Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, 31, a three-time councilor from Chandni Mahal, is AAP’s deputy mayoral candidate.
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New Delhi, Dec 27: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for the posts of mayor and deputy of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Gupta is a three-term councilor from Shalimar Bagh while Bagdi was elected for the first time from Ram Nagar.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday last named 39-year-old Shelly Oberoi, a former professor and first-time councilor from East Patel Nagar ward, as its mayoral candidate. Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, 31, a three-time councilor from Chandni Mahal, is AAP’s deputy mayoral candidate.
The post of the mayor is reserved for a woman in the first year of the MCD’s five-year tenure. AAP candidates have filed nominations for the January 6 mayoral election. All BJP candidates are likely to file their nominations on Tuesday, the last date for them. The BJP won 104 seats while AAP got 134 in the 250-member MCD. One independent candidate joined the BJP on Monday. The Congress has nine while there are also two independent councilors. Kamaljeet Sehrawat (Dwarka), former mayor of the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Gajendra Daral (Mundka), and Pankaj Luthra (Jhilmil) have been named as BJP’s candidates for MCD’s standing committee. Councilors are free to vote for anyone in the mayoral polls, irrespective of party affiliations since the anti-defection law does not apply. The election will be held by secret ballot. The electoral college for the election of mayor includes 250 councilors, 10 members of Parliament from Delhi, and 1/5th of the members of the assembly (14) nominated by the speaker by rotation annually. The Delhi assembly speaker on Friday nominated 13 AAP and one BJP lawmaker for representation in the MCD. Three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi belong to the AAP and seven Lok Sabha lawmakers to the BJP. Ten people nominated by the lieutenant governor (administrator) are also part of the house of councilors. But they do not have voting rights. At the first MCD meeting on January 6, the 250 municipal councilors will take oaths and elect the mayor and deputy mayor, besides six members of the standing committee.
The mayor will remain in office till April, as the election for mayor, deputy mayor, and standing committee members will be held again in the new financial year. The first meeting of the MCD will mark the beginning of the five-year tenure of the unified corporation and the newly elected councilors.