High Octane Delhi Mayor Polls Today, AAP's Shelly Oberoi Pitted Against BJP's Shikha Rai. Top Points

The AAP is the ruling party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and

BJP leader Shikha Rai and incumbent mayor Shelly Oberoi from the AAP

Source : PTI

The high octane election for Delhi's mayor will be held on Wednesday, with incumbent Shelly Oberoi from the AAP and BJP leader Shikha Rai pitted against each other. For the deputy mayor's post, AAP's Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, son of MLA Shoaib Iqbal, is looking for a possible second consecutive term and he will be up against BJP's Soni Pandey, an activist of the Purvanchal Morcha.

The AAP is the ruling party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and has exuded confidence that its candidates are poised for a win.

Like last time in February, the mayoral election is expected to be a stormy affair at the Civic Centre -- the headquarters of the MCD. The tenure of the House ended on March 31.

Delhi Mayor Election 2023: All You Need To Know

• In the last mayoral election, AAP's Shelly Oberoi won by 34 votes and became the first Mayor of the reunified MCD on February 22. This time, she has been pitted against BJP leader Shikha Rai, the councillor from the Greater Kailash-1 ward.
• Oberoi is a former visiting assistant professor at Delhi Univeristy and a first-time councillor. She contested the elections from former Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta’s home turf of East Patel Nagar and defeated candidate Deepali Kumar by 269 votes.
• The deputy mayor's post will see a contest between AAP's Aaley Mohammad and Soni Pandey, the councillor from ward number 249. Aaley had defeated BJP candidate Kamal Bagri by a margin of 31 votes to become the deputy mayor in February.
• The post of mayor in Delhi sees five single-year terms on a rotational basis. The first year is reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category and the remaining two again for the open category.
• Earlier this year, mayoral polls were held after three failed attempts due to ruckus in the House, with some councillors seen pushing, slapping and punching each other.
• The elections were finally conducted after the Supreme Court clarified that nominated members, called aldermen, cannot be given the right to vote.
• Earlier this week, AAP councillor from Dwarka C ward Sunita joined the BJP in presence of senior leaders of the Delhi unit. Earlier, Pawan Sehrawat from Bawana ward joined the BJP in February this year.
• The unification of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (104 wards) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (64 wards) happened last year after a bill was passed in Parliament.