After seven months, the elections to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be held in the ordinary meeting of Municipal Corporation of Delhi on November 14. An order to this effect has been issued by Mayor Dr Shelly Oberai on Monday. This year, it is reserved for a councillor from the Scheduled Caste community after Oberoi’s term ended on March 31, but elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor were postponed due to the non-appointment of the presiding officer, as per an official statement released by the civic body on April 25. The tenure for the Dalit candidate, however, will be truncated to just five months due to a seven-month delay caused by a political deadlock between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The delay led to repeated protests and disruptions in the MCD House by opposition councillors.
The polls to the posts of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are held every year. The Mayor’s post is rotated among members from different social groups. The mayor's election is held through a secret ballot and councillors are free to vote for any candidate.
The mayoral polls have been pending since April. According to MCD rules, elections for the mayor are held annually in April, with a five-year tenure comprising five single-year terms on a rotation basis. The first year is reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category, and the final two years again for the open category. The AAP had announced Devnagar ward councillor Mahesh Khichi as its candidate for the mayoral position and Aman Vihar councillor Ravinder Bhardwaj as the candidate for deputy mayor. The BJP named Shakurpur councillor Kishan Lal as its mayoral candidate, with Sadatpur councillor Nita Bisht as its choice for deputy mayor.
The delay in elections stemmed from the lack of a presiding officer's appointment by the Lieutenant Governor, who said the procedure required consultation with the Chief Minister. The process stalled as then-Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was in judicial custody, which prevented the necessary sign-off.
South Delhi BJP MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri criticised the AAP government for deliberately postponing the Mayoral elections for the past seven months. “These elections should have been held seven months ago but AAP leadership delayed the process,” he said.
Oberoi is the first mayor of the reunified MCD and has been in the post since February 2023. In the February 2023 polls, Oberoi received 150 votes against BJP’s Rekha Gupta, who received 116 votes. After a two-month tenure, elections were held afresh in April 2023, in which Oberoi was elected unopposed — BJP candidate Shika Roy withdrew her nomination at the last moment.
The electoral college for electing a mayor comprises Delhi’s 250 councillors, 10 parliamentarians (seven Lok Sabha, three Rajya Sabha), 14 MLAs nominated by the state assembly speaker, and 10 aldermen who do not do not have voting powers in the house proceedings.
For the elections, the AAP has the support of 134 councillors from its party, along with another independent councillor. In addition, the party also has the support of three Rajya Sabha MPs (all AAP) and 13 MLAs. The BJP, on the other hand, claims the support of 104 councillors, along with another independent councillor, as well as seven Lok Sabha members and one MLA. Meanwhile, the Congress has nine councillors, along with the support of another independent councillor.
