Shelly Oberoi of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the mayoral election on Wednesday, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that nominated members would not be allowed to vote. Oberoi received 150 votes, compared to 116 for BJP candidate Rekha Gupta.
“I assure you all that I will run this House in a constitutional manner. I expect you all will maintain the dignity of the House and cooperate in its smooth functioning,” Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi said as soon as she was elected as the mayor.
The voting which started at around 11.30 am went on for more than 2 hours.
A total of 10 nominated MPs, 14 nominated MLAs and 241 elected councillors out of 250 voted in the mayoral election.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia congratulated Shelly Oberoi for winning the mayoral election and said ‘goons lost, public won’.
With the election of the new mayor, the office of the presiding officer has ended, and Oberoi will now preside over the rest of the polls, including those for the deputy mayor and six members of the powerful standing committee, in accordance with the top court’s Friday ruling.
The polling began with the MPs and MLAs casting their votes, followed by voting by the elected Councillors. The nominated MLAs of both parties also cast their votes, among whom 13 were from the AAP and 1 from BJP.
AAP MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi also cast his vote. In the last election, the presiding officer had barred Akhilesh Pati Tripathi and Sanjeev Jha from voting on the grounds that both of them were accused of corruption.
There was a need for 274 valid votes for the mayoral election. Congress has 9 Councillors who boycotted the election. In this situation, a total of 265 votes had to be cast in today’s election.
Either of the two mayoral candidates needed 134 votes to win.
The voting began at 11.30 am after the Supreme Court ruled that the Delhi Mayor election be conducted. The court also ruled that the aldermen (nominated councillors) would have no right to vote.
The election was due after Aam Aadmi Party won the MCD elections in December last year.
The last three attempts to elect the Mayor failed due to the political bickering between the Aam Aadmi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. The civic centre met for the first time on January 6, second on January 24 and last on February 6.
In the last meeting, Presiding officer Satya Sharma of the BJP administered oath to the aldermen, the members nominated by Lt Governor Vinai Saxena before administering the oath to the elected councillors.
A plea was thereafter filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi LG’s decision to permit the nominated members to vote, after which the top court on February 8 issued a notice to the LG.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also had sent a proposal to the LG to conduct elections on February 22 which was approved on February 18.
As per the order issued by the Lieutenant Governor, elections for the mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee will be held on February 22.
According to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the Municipal House has to meet within a month after the conclusion of the civic polls and elect the mayor. However, the election has been stalled thrice over the dispute over the voting rights of nominated members.
The municipal elections in Delhi were held on December 4 and the results were announced on December 7. Aam Aadmi Party won 134 seats out of 250.
(With excerpts from ANI).
