NEW DELHI: AAP's Shelly Oberoi defeated BJP's Rekha Gupta by a margin of 34 votes to become the mayor of Delhi, MCD officials announced on Wednesday.
Oberoi polled 150 votes while Gupta received 116 votes out of the total 266 votes polled. The voting was held at the Civic Centre.
Shelly is also the first woman mayor of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Rajni Abbi was the last woman to be elected to the top post in the MCD in 2011 before its trifurcation.
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.
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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 AAP candidate has become the mayor in Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Once again whole hearted gratitude to the people of Delhi. Many many congratulations to the first Mayor @OberoiShelly of AAP," he tweeted in Hindi.