Delhi: AAP names MCD mayor, deputy mayor candidates

The Aam Aadmi Party announced the names of Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammed Iqbal as the candidates for the post of MCD mayor and deputy mayor respectively.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday named Shelly Oberoi (39), a first time councillor who won from East Patel Nagar ward as the candidate for the post of mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD); and Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, councillor from Chandni Mahal ward, for the post of deputy mayor, the party’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta announced after a meeting of the political affairs committee chaired by AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal chaired a meeting of the party’s political affairs committee on Friday. (PTI File Photo)

Oberoi was a visiting professor before contesting the election while Iqbal is a third time councillor and son of AAP MLA Shoaib Iqbal. The post of the mayor is reserved for a female councillor in the first of the MCD’s five-year tenure.

At the first MCD meeting on January 6, the 250 municipal councillors will take oath and elect the mayor and deputy mayor besides six members of the standing committee, said an official.

The party finalised six names including two names for mayor and deputy mayor posts. The party has named four persons as candidates for the election of the standing committee members – Mohammad Aamil Malik from Sri Ram Colony, Raminder Kaur from Fateh Nagar, Mohini Jeenwal from Sunder Nagri, and Sarika Chaudhary from Daryaganj.

The mayor who will be elected on January 6 will remain in office till April. The election of mayor will be again held in April.

The first meeting of the MCD will mark the beginning of a five-year tenure of the unified corporation and the city’s 250 newly elected councillors. “The election will be held by secret ballot and no anti-defection laws are applicable in case of cross-voting,” an official said.

The results for MCD elections were announced on December 7, 2022. The AAP won 134 of the 250 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 104 while the Congress secured only 9 seats. Three wards elected independent candidates.

The electoral college for the election of mayor now includes 250 elected councillors, seven members of Lok Sabha, three members of Rajya Sabha and 1/5th of the members of the Delhi Assembly ((13 MLAs) nominated by the Speaker by rotation every year.

While 10 persons nominated by the LG (administrator) called Alderman are also part of the house of councillors, they do not have voting rights in the House.

Once the elections at the central level are over, the focus will shift to elections at the 12 administrative zones, each of which is represented by a Wards Committee. Each zone can send one member to the powerful standing committee. As per the current distribution of councillors across the 12 zones, 4 zones have clear majority of the BJP, 7 are dominated by the AAP while one zone has a close contest. “Aldermen have voting rights at the zonal level and they may tip the balance in some of these closely contested zones,” an official explained.