BJP's Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh elected Delhi Mayor

New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected as the new Mayor of Delhi as the party managed to win 133 votes in the municipal contest, which had 262 eligible voters.

Along with 238 councillors, a total of 10 MPs and 14 legislators were also eligible to vote in Friday’s election, taking the number of eligible voters to 262.

The BJP managed to reclaim the post of the city’s First Citizen after two years of dominance by the Aam Aadmi Party, ushering in what Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva described as a “Triple Engine” government in the national capital.

Now, the BJP is in a position to call the shots in the Centre, the Delhi government and the MCD.

In the Mayoral election, Singh’s rival from the Congress, Mandeep Singh, got just eight votes. The AAP boycotted the election. A total of 10 MPs and 14 legislators were also eligible to vote in Friday’s election.

The current strength of the MCD stands at 238, with 12 seats vacant due to some councillors being elected to the Delhi Assembly and one to the Lok Sabha.

After the civic polls in 2022, the BJP held 104 wards, but now its strength has increased to 117. The AAP's strength has fallen to 113 from 134. Congress holds only eight seats.

On the eve of the Mayoral elections in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor expressed confidence in the party nominee winning the top civic post.

For the Deputy Mayor’s post, BJP’s Jaibhagwan Yadav was elected unchallenged as Congress’ Ariba Khan withdrew her name.

The AAP, which decided to abstain from the election by not fielding a nominee, has backed out of the contest as it has realised that the BJP has a numerical superiority in the civic House, said Kapoor.

He said that the AAP is disintegrating, and after two-and-a-half years of stagnant development work, their councillors want to break away from the party line.

The voting on Friday reflected the realignment of forces in the Civic House, in which the AAP had won a majority in the last civic polls.

--IANS

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