NEW DELHI: BJP councillors Raja Iqbal Singh and Jai Bhagwan were elected as Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Municipal Corporation of Delhi, respectively.
They defeated Congress candidates Mandeep Singh and Ariba Khan.
Out of the total 142 votes polled for both the top posts, BJP's Raja Iqbal Singh got 133 votes, while Congress's Mandeep Singh got 8 votes. One vote was declared invalid.
For Deputy Mayor's election, the Congress candidate withdrew her name and the BJP candidate was declared the winner.
Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party had decided to completely boycott the election process.
The BJP, which was in power in the MCD from 2007 to 2022, had lost the MCD elections in December 2022 against the AAP, but the party is now in a position to reclaim power after almost three years.
With the walkover given by the AAP, the BJP was all set to comfortably sweep the top posts, solidifying its control over Delhi through the Centre, the nominated MLAs in the Assembly and now through the MCD.
The newly elected Mayor said that the people of Delhi have entrusted the BJP with the responsibility of fixing the city's problems.
"I thank the top leadership of the party who trusted in him. With gaining the power, the government will ensure overall development of the city and the focus areas will be education, health, sanitation, etc," Iqbal said.
Iqbal had earlier stated that the AAP has already accepted its defeat.
We will eliminate corruption and complete all the pending work that was stalled over the past two years.
AAP councillor and former Mayor Shelly Oberoi and Leader of the House Mukesh Goyal reiterated their party's decision on April 24 to boycott the election.
"We will completely boycott the MCD election," Oberoi said, accusing the BJP of turning the civic polls into a farce with its so-called 'triple engine power'.
Oberoi and Goyal added that under Arvind Kejriwal's leadership, several people-centric decisions were taken, but the BJP's only objective was to 'seize power'.
The current strength of the MCD is 238, as 12 seats lie vacant due to a few councillors getting elected to the Delhi Assembly and one councillor being elected to Lok Sabha.
The electoral college for the mayoral election includes 238 councillors, 10 MPs (seven from the Lok Sabha and three from the Rajya Sabha) and 14 MLAs. Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta has nominated 11 BJP and 3 AAP MLAs as the electors.
The previous mayoral election, held on November 14, 2024, witnessed AAP's Mahesh Kumar Khinchi win by a razor-thin margin of just three votes.
