Delhi Mayor Election 2023: Stage set for election today, direct contest between AAP & BJP

The stage is set for the election of Delhi’s new mayor and a deputy mayor today. In the high-stakes polls, there will be a direct contest between incumbent Shelly Oberoi from AAP and BJP councillor from Greater Kailash Shikha Rai. The polling will be held at the Civic Centre — the headquarters of the MCD. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the ruling party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Similarly, incumbent deputy mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal of the AAP will take on BJP’s Soni Pandey from the Sonia Vihar ward in East Delhi. Oberoi was elected Delhi mayor on February 22 in the fourth attempt since the earlier elections were stalled amid a ruckus over voting rights being given to nominated members. She had defeated BJP’s Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes by polling 150 votes. Gupta got 116 of the total 266 votes polled. 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. The city gets a new mayor after the end of a financial year. AAP’s Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal filed their nominations earlier this month for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively for a possible second consecutive term, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party exuding confidence that its candidates are poised for a win. 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. 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 as a clear winner in the December 4 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. The total number of votes in the mayoral polls is 274. The numbers game favours the AAP, which has 150 votes against the BJP’s 113. With inputs from agencies. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .