Municipal House to choose deputy mayor and mayor of Delhi

Weeks after the first session was called to adjourn due to a fracas between the AAP and the BJP, the municipal House will return on Tuesday to pick the mayor and deputy mayor of Delhi after the recent high-stakes civic elections in the nation's capital.

After a ten-year hiatus, Delhi will finally have a mayor for the whole city after the mayoral election.

The 250 newly elected members of the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) House deferred its first meeting on January 6 after loud objections from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors over the presiding officer's choice to swear in the 10 aldermen first.

House procedures will start at 11 am, according to the timetable provided by the MCD.

Despite the AAP's vehement resistance at the last meeting, presiding officer Satya Sharma said on Monday that the Lt Governor-appointed aldermen would take the oath first.

The taking of the oath by council members and members nominated in accordance with the DMC Act, 1957 (amended in 2022), was noted on the agenda for the meeting on January 24. It does not, however, outline the order in which the oaths are taken.

Votes were counted after the civic elections on December 4, which were conducted on December 4.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 15-year rule in the civic body had come to an end after the AAP won 134 wards and declared itself the election's undisputed victor.

While the Congress won nine seats, the BJP gained 104 wards to place second.

The AAP's candidates for mayor are Shelly Oberoi and Ashu Thakur. Rekha Gupta has been proposed by the BJP.

The candidates for the position of deputy mayor are Kamal Bagri, Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, and Jalaj Kumar (AAP) (BJP).

Six members of the MCD standing committee will also be chosen during the municipal House in addition to the mayor and deputy mayor.

In the nation's capital, the position of mayor is filled by rotation for five one-year terms, with the first year designated for women, the second for open candidates, the third for candidates in a reserved category, and the last two again for candidates in the open category.

As a result, Delhi will have a female mayor this year.

250 council members, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi, and 14 MLAs chosen by the Legislative Assembly are the electors for the mayor.

One BJP MLA and 13 AAP MLAs have received nominations from the Delhi Assembly Speaker for the MCD.