AAP's Shelly Oberoi becomes mayor of Delhi, BJP's Shikha Rai withdraws nomination

The Aam Aadmi Party’s Shelly Oberoi was elected mayor of Delhi on Wednesday without contest as her BJP rival Shikha Rai withdrew her nomination.

With this, Oberoi got another term as mayor of Delhi. Rai told the House that she took the step because the election to the standing committee has not been conducted.

Incumbent Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal also got another term at the post, as BJP candidate Soni Pal withdrew her nomination. Iqbal and Pal were the two rival candidates for the post of deputy mayor.

The mayoral election in Delhi was supposed to be a direct contest between incumbent Oberoi and Rai. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the ruling party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Oberoi was elected Delhi mayor for the first time on February 22 in the fourth attempt since the earlier elections were stalled amid a ruckus over voting rights being given to nominated members. She had defeated BJP’s Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes by polling 150 votes. Gupta got 116 of the total 266 votes polled.

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.