The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Shelly Oberoi was elected mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Wednesday, as BJP's Shikha Rai withdrew her nomination. A heated battle was expected after the ruckus between both the parties during the election for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in February.
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, hence mandating the next round of election that was held on Wednesday.
Oberoi, MCD's incumbent mayor, was elected to the post for the first time on February 22. She had defeated BJP's Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes. Oberoi was finally elected in the fourth attempt on February 22 as the earlier attempts were stalled due the ruckus between the councillors of the AAP and the BJP.
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.
-with agency inputs