Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) resolved to nominate Shikha Rai and Soni Pandey for the election of mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), despite lacking sufficient numbers in the House. The vote will take place on April 26.
Soni Pandey represents the Sonia Vihar ward in northeast Delhi, while Shikha Rai represents the Greater Kailash-1 ward in the civic body.
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As Tuesday was the deadline for registering nominations, a Delhi BJP statement stated that Rai and Pandey filed their nomination papers on Tuesday evening.
Earlier, PTI reported that a senior leader of the Delhi BJP stated that the party was unlikely to contest the elections due to the “clear mandate” in favor of the Aam Aadmi Party.
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Mayor Shelly Oberoi and vice mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal are AAP candidates.
April marks the beginning of the one-year term of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s mayor.
The position has five rotating one-year terms, with the first year reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category, and the final two for the open category again.
The BJP contested the February election for mayor of the unified MCD municipal corporation of Delhi despite lacking the required number of votes to win.
Oberoi beat BJP councilor Rekha Gupta 34 votes in February.
Iqbal had also defeated his rival from the BJP.
The Aam Aadmi Party won the December 2017 MCD elections.
It terminated the 15-year hegemony of the BJP in the MCD.
The AAP won 134 of the 250 constituencies, compared to the BJP’s 104.
