The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s candidate Shelly Oberoi was
unanimously elected as mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Wednesday
after BJP candidate Shikha Rai withdrew her nomination.
AAP's Aaley Mohammad Iqbal also got another term as deputy
mayor after BJP candidate Soni Pal withdrew her nomination.
Shelly has become the mayor of Delhi for the second time.
Oberoi was elected mayor of Delhi in February this year after much
wrangling between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party. Shelly
Oberoi had defeated had defeated BJP’s Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34
votes. Oberoi polled 150 votes, while Gupta received 116 of the total 266 votes
polled.
The elections for the Delhi Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Delhi
were scheduled for today. However, the BJP candidates' withdrawal led the AAP
candidates to unanimously win the posts for the second consecutive term.
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. Delhi gets a new mayor after the end
of a financial year.
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. However, due to tensions between
the BJP and AAP party, several attempts were failed in electing city's mayor.
Shelly Oberoi had become Mayor in February after the 4th attempt.
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.