After three failed attempts in the last two-and-a-half months since the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls, the national capital finally got its mayor on Wednesday with Aam Aadmi Party candidate Shelly Oberoi comfortably defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rekha Gupta in the much-anticipated election.
While Oberoi prevailed over Gupta by 34 votes, AAP's Aaley Mohammad Iqbal won the deputy mayor election by 31 votes.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed the results as a victory of Delhiities and hit out at the BJP, saying "goons" were defeated.
While the mayor and deputy mayor polls were held peacefully, the MCD House witnessed ruckus as the process to elect six members of the apex decision-making standing committee began.
The ruckus erupted when BJP councillors opposed Oberoi's decision to allow members to carry their phones while voting, forcing her to adjourn the House for 15 minutes twice.
The AAP is now faced with the daunting task of controlling the standing committee which has powers to grant financial approval to projects, set up sub-committees on several issues and finalisation of policies.
A mayor's powers are to call meetings of the MCD House and disqualify members if they do not furnish details of their assets.
The arithmetic in the mayoral poll was favouring the Kejriwal-led AAP which had 150 votes against the BJP's 113 out of the total of 274 votes. There were two votes of independent councillors.
While Oberoi received all the votes accounted for by her party, the BJP got three votes more than its total strength.
The electoral college comprised the 250 votes from the elected councillors, seven BJP Lok Sabha members and three AAP Rajya Sabha members from Delhi and 14 MLAs, including 13 from the AAP and one from the BJP.
In the MCD House, the Congress has nine councillors. Although the party had announced that all its councillors would abstain from the polls, one councillor, Sheetal Chaudhary, participated in the voting, defying the party's directive.
Asked if Chaudhary supported the BJP candidate, her husband Ved Pal denied the charge.
"The Congress had decided to abstain from voting (in the mayoral polls) around two months ago. The party did not issue any fresh guideline on not participating in voting for the polls," Pal told PTI.
Oberoi, a visiting faculty of Delhi University, is the first mayor of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
BJP's Gupta received 116 votes, three more than the total votes accounted for by her party. She got two votes of the independent councillors and Congress councillor as well, MCD sources claimed, even as there was no official confirmation.
The voting for mayor and deputy mayor polls takes place through secret ballot in which no anti-defection law is applicable.
After the results were announced, Oberoi, wearing a garland, acknowledged the greetings with folded hands.
Soon after the results were announced in the MCD House, AAP councillors offered sweets to the newly elected mayor while women councillors were seen jostling on the dais to take a selfie with her, as other members flashed victory signs.
After being elected, Oberoi said, "I thank CM Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and the people of Delhi. In the next three days, we will visit landfill sites.
"All councillors will work from today only. The 10-guarantee programme will be our focus. The deputy mayor and standing committee elections will be held today itself. I also want to thank the judiciary."
Congratulating Delhiites, Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi: "The goons lost, the public won. In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the people of Delhi won and hooliganism was defeated. Congratulations to the people of Delhi on Shelly Oberoi being elected mayor."
His deputy Sisodia also congratulated Oberoi and the party workers on the win.
"The goons lost, the public won. Many congratulations to all the workers as the AAP candidate has become the mayor in Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Once again wholehearted gratitude to the people of Delhi. Many many congratulations to the first Mayor @OberoiShelly of AAP," he tweeted in Hindi.
Delhi got its mayor on the fourth attempt since the earlier elections were stalled amid ruckus over voting rights being given to the LG-appointed nominated members.
Last week, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to convene the municipal House for holding the mayoral election following the Supreme Court order.
The top court on February 17 ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to fix the date of elections for the mayor, the deputy mayor and the members of the standing committee of the civic body.
The court issued the order after hearing a plea moved by Oberoi.
In a shot in the arm for the AAP, the apex court also held that the members nominated to the MCD by the lt governor cannot vote to elect the mayor
The AAP had won the December 4 MCD polls, bagging 134 wards and ending the BJP's 15-year rule in the civic body. The BJP won 104 wards to finish second, while the Congress won nine seats in the 250-member municipal House.
