New Delhi : AAP’s Shelly Oberoi became the mayor of Delhi after defeating the BJP’s mayoral candidate Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes, MCD officials announced on Wednesday.
Voting began as the municipal house met after three previous failed attempts to hold the election to the top post.
BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Hans Raj Hans were among the firsts to cast their votes.
The exercise took place after much delay since the high-stakes MCD elections last month.
The mayoral election is being conducted following a Supreme Court order after three failed attempts earlier to hold the polls.
Oberoi polled 150 votes while Gupta received 116 votes out of the total 266 votes polled. The voting was held at the Civic Centre.
Delhi got the mayor in the fourth attempt since the earlier elections were stalled amid ruckus over voting rights being given to nominated members.
Last week, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to convene the municipal House for holding the mayoral election following the apex court order.
The top court on February 17 ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to fix the date of elections for the mayor, the deputy mayor and the members of the standing committee of the civic body.
The court issued the order after hearing a plea moved by Oberoi, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) mayoral candidate.
In a shot in the arm for the AAP, the apex court also held that the members nominated to the MCD by the Lt Governor cannot vote to elect the mayor.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia congratulated Oberoi and the party workers on the win. “The goons lost, the public won. Many congratulations to all the workers as the AAP candidate has become the mayor in Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Once again wholehearted gratitude to the people of Delhi. Many many congratulations to the first Mayor @OberoiShelly of AAP,” he tweeted in Hindi.
