BJP’s Pravesh Wahi Elected Delhi Mayor, Monika Pant Becomes Deputy Mayor

Pravesh Wahi of the Bharatiya Janata Party was elected Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Wednesday, securing a decisive victory with 156 votes. BJP councillor Monika Pant was also elected as Deputy Mayor with the same number of votes.

Wahi, a councillor from Rohini East, was backed by 14 councillors of the Indraprastha Vikas Party, helping him cross the required majority mark of 137 votes in the 273-member electoral college. Congress candidate Hazi Zaraf secured just nine votes.

In addition, BJP members Jai Bhagwan Yadav and Manish Chadha were elected to the standing committee, along with AAP councillor Jalaj Chaudhary.

The Aam Aadmi Party abstained from the mayoral election. The party said the move was aimed at allowing the BJP to take control of the civic body and be held accountable for governance in the national capital.

After his victory, Wahi thanked party leadership and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, pledging to focus on cleanliness and development. “We will clean Delhi in the coming months and work for its development,” he said.

The electoral college for the mayoral polls included 249 councillors, 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi Assembly, seven Lok Sabha MPs, and three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi.

The election marks a shift in power in the civic body. Earlier, AAP held the mayor’s post, with Mahesh Kumar Khinchi winning the election in November 2024 by a narrow margin.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was reunified into a single entity in May 2022 after merging the erstwhile East, North and South Delhi municipal corporations.