AAP to stick with Shelly Oberoi, Aaley Iqbal as mayoral candidates in MCD

The Aam Admi Party (AAP) has decided to stick with incumbent Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal as their mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates, respectively, for a second term in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the party said on Monday.

The second round of the mayoral election in the MCD started on April 12 with the municipal secretariat formally issuing the notification for holding the elections for the post of mayor and deputy mayor on April 26.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in a press conference on Monday said that AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has decided that the party’s candidates will be repeated.

“They will once again win the elections with a massive mandate. They have performed well in the limited time they had and served the people of Delhi well. Based on their performance, we have decided to repeat them,” Singh said.

Mayor Oberoi said that the people of Delhi have provided a mandate to the AAP to witness a clean and beautiful Delhi and the party will work towards realising this vision. “I will try to work with honesty and hard work to realise this dream,” she added.

Deputy mayor Iqbal said that he will work towards realising the ten guarantees made in the run up to the municipal polls. “We have created a roadmap over our short tenure. We will work towards taking the MCD at the top position. We will give an account of our achievements after one year,” he added.

Oberoi and Iqbal are expected to file their nominations later in the day at the municipal secretary office in the municipal headquarters at Civic Center.

A senior municipal official from secretariat said that the prospective candidates can file nomination papers with the municipal secretary till April 18. “The nominees will have the freedom to withdraw their candidature till the beginning of the house meeting when the final call will be made,” the official explained.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to hear the Delhi government’s petition challenging the appointment of aldermen (nominated councilors) by lieutenant governor VK Saxena later today.

Oberoi had an unusually short, truncated tenure of 38 days as the MCD annual cycle starts from April 1 every year. The annual cycle was impacted last year due to unification of the three municipal corporations and delimitation of wards delaying the election process from April to December 2022. The subsequent House meetings held in January and February witnessed ruckus and pandemonium over the issues related to voting rights of aldermen and other procedural issues.

After three failed attempts marred by violence and pandemonium, the mayoral election was completed on February 22 after the intervention of the Supreme Court, which clarified the rules of the election.

Oberoi was elected as MCD mayor on February 22 by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Rekha Gupta by 34 votes. Iqbal won 147 votes against the BJP’s Kamal Bagri’s 116 votes.

The municipal elections in Delhi were held on December 4 and the results were announced on December 7. The AAP won 134 seats out of 250.

The municipal official cited above said that the civic body continues to operate in policy paralysis due to non-completion of the special first House meeting. All policy matters with the financial implication of more than ₹5 crore remain pending awaiting the standing committee formation, the official added.