NEW DELHI: Weeks after recording a victory in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday named Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammed Iqbal as its candidates for the post of mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.
Oberoi, a first-time councillor, won from East Patel Nagar ward while Iqbal is the councillor from Chandni Mahal ward. The mayor’s post is reserved for a woman candidate for the first year. Iqbal is son of AAP’s Matia Mahal MLA, Shoib Iqbal, and this is his third consecutive term as a councillor.
The AAP candidates for the standing committee are Aamil Malik, Raminder Kaur, Mohini Jeenwal and Sarika Choudhary. The announcement to this effect was made by the party’s national secretary, Pankaj Gupta, after a meeting of the political affairs committee chaired by AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“We discussed the names of six candidates for various posts in the MCD,” Gupta said after the meeting, while announcing the finalised names. Oberoi, 39, brought up the issue of the city’s cleanliness, saying for the past 15 years, the BJP had been turning the national capital into a huge dumpster, and that AAP has now taken the onus to make it garbage-free.
Describing her priorities as the mayor, she said the 10 promises made by AAP during the elections will be fulfilled. “The BJP had not done any work. We will fix all of it now,” she said. December 27 is the last date for nominations for the mayoral election. The mayor and deputy mayor will be elected in the first meeting of the MCD, which is scheduled to be held on January 6.