Rekha Gupta, a three-time councillor from Shalimar Bagh, has been chosen as the candidate for Delhi Mayor on the last day of polling. The saffron party decided to field its Shalimar Bagh councillor to challenge AAP's Shelly Oberoi in the January 6 elections.
The BJP has also named Kamal Bagri as deputy mayor candidate as well as Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Gajendra Daral and Pankaj Luthra for standing committee member posts said Delhi BJP media cell head Harish Khurana. All the party candidates will later on the day file their nominations.
Though the Delhi BJP is unlikely to win the post of mayor and deputy mayor, it will try to win three posts of members of the crucial standing committee of the MCD. The election of mayor is held through a secret ballot and councillors are free to vote for any candidate since the anti-defection law does not apply to it.
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Who is Rekha Gupta?
A leader of BJP, Gupta is a former general secretary and president of Delhi University Students Union from 1996-97.
She is a member of the national executive of the party and general secretary of Delhi BJP.
Elected from Shalimar Bagh ward, Gupta has been associated with the BJP since her college days. Pitampura area is Gupta’s stronghold and she was a two-time councillor from North Pitampura (Ward 54) from 2007 to 2014.
Delhi Mayor elections
The AAP has a clear majority in the 250-member Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House.
Some party leaders claimed that an intense contest could be witnessed for the mayor as well as deputy mayor posts since the anti-defection law does not apply to the MCD and floor crossing could be possible. The AAP ended the BJP's 15-year-rule in the MCD winning 134 of the 250 wards in the civic body polls earlier this month. The BJP managed to win 104 wards.
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Later, Mundka councillor Gajendra Daral also joined the BJP.
The voters for the election of mayor, include 250 elected councillors, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi and 15 MLAs of Legislative Assembly.
The Delhi Assembly Speaker has nominated 13 AAP and one BJP MLAs to the MCD.
The total votes for mayoral election are 274. The number game favours AAP having 150 votes against 113 of the BJP.
The Congress has nine councillors while two others are independents in the MCD House.
The election for the post of mayor, deputy mayor and standing committee members will take place on January 6.
There are 18 members in the standing committee of the MCD out of which 12 are elected from the zones and six from the House.
(with PTI inputs)
