Delhi Mayor Dr Shelly Oberoi and Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal on Monday filed their nominations for the April 26 Mayoral elections for a possible second consecutive term, with the AAP confident its candidates are poised for a win. Oberoi and Iqbal filed their nomination papers in the presence of AAP MP Sanjay Singh, Delhi Education Minister Atishi and Leader of the House of the MCD, Mukesh Goyal. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), elects a new mayor after the end of every financial year.
Earlier, the AAP has decided to stick with incumbent Oberoi and Iqbal as their mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates, respectively, for a second term . “We will repeat Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal as candidates for mayor and deputy mayor posts respectively. AAP had emerged victorious despite the BJP’s attempts to disrupt the mayoral polls earlier. Our candidates will win the polls this time too,” AAP leader Sanjay Singh said in a press conference earlier in the day.
Singh also accused the opposition BJP of attempting to disrupt the mayoral polls earlier. Despite that, the AAP emerged victorious, he added.
Atishi expressed her confidence that both elections would be won with a vast majority in favour of AAP. “Our Mayor-Deputy Mayor do not sit in AC rooms but work on the ground,” she added, while saying, “They go everywhere, from the garbage mountains to different wards, schools, and hospitals. This has brought agility to the system. This has brought agility to the system. Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal himself is personally monitoring the cleanliness and development works of the mountains of garbage.” She also affirmed that the Delhi Government and MCD would continue to work together under AAP.
Oberoi thanked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for giving her the opportunity. “The people of entire Delhi have given us a huge majority. In such a situation, the people of Delhi have a lot of expectations from us. “I will try to work with honesty and hard work to realise this dream,” she added.
She added that the AAP will do its best to live up to the expectations of the people of Delhi in the coming times. “We will work closely with the Delhi government with full honesty and hard work in the coming term. I thank Shri Sanjay Singh ji and Ms. Atishi ji, for their guidance & presence at the time of my nomination.”
A senior municipal official from the secretariat said that the prospective candidates can file nomination papers with the municipal secretary till April 18. “The nominees will have the freedom to withdraw their candidature till the beginning of the house meeting when the final call will be made,” the official explained.
The post of the mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category, and the remaining two again for the open category.
The December 4 civic polls last year were the first after the three corporations were unified into the MCD and a fresh delimitation exercise was carried out, reducing the total number of wards from 272 in 2012 to 250. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had emerged victorious in the polls.
