Former North MCD mayor Raja Iqbal Singh set to lead Delhi civic body

Raja Iqbal Singh has previously served as the mayor of former north MCD and steered the BJP as LoP over the last two-and-a-half years

With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) not fielding any candidate for the Delhi Mayor elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) nominee Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh, 54, is in all likelihood set to return to the mayor’s office on Friday when the polls are scheduled to be held at the Civic Centre.

Raja Iqbal Singh. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Singh has previously served as the mayor of former north MCD and steered the BJP as leader of opposition (LoP) over the last two-and-a-half years.

“The biggest issue in Delhi is cleanliness. Our priority will be to improve sanitation, control pollution, prevent waterlogging and improve civic services. We will work to reduce the corruption in the MCD. We will also work on education facilities and primary health centres and try to maintain hygiene at all settlements,” Singh said after filing his nomination on Monday. The triple-engine government will be formed in Delhi and the city’s development will begin, he added.

Singh is a second-term councillor and currently represents the Mukherjee Nagar ward. Before this, he had won the seat from GTB Nagar ward.

Further, he comes from a political background which has had links with the Akali Dal. His father-in-law has also previously represented the GTB Nagar ward as a councillor.

A BSc graduate from SGTB Khalsa college from Delhi university, Singh has an LLB degree from the CCS University. He had won the 2017 MCD elections in North Delhi Municipal Corporation as Akali Dal councillor from GTB Nagar and he was later elected as the chairperson of the Civil Lines zone in 2020. In 2020, Akali Dal moved out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over farm laws but Singh stayed with the BJP and nine months later, the party picked him for the mayor’s post.

Singh was the mayor of NDMC when the demolition drive in Jahangirpuri was carried out by the civic body in 2022 when communal clashes took place in the midst of a procession on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti. On April 19, prompted by a complaint from the BJP, the civic body had ordered demolition of the houses, shops and structures on the street where riots took place while terming them to be “illegal encroachments”. The Supreme Court of India issued a stay order but several structures were razed.