Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s candidate for the Delhi mayoral poll, Shelly Oberoi, has been elected the new Mayor of Delhi defeating Rekha Gupta of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.
The AAP selected the names of Shelly Oberoi as the mayoral candidate and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, son of AAP MLA Shoaib Iqbal, as the deputy mayor candidate in December last year.
Voting began earlier on Wednesday and BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Hans Raj Hans were among the first to cast their votes. The proceedings of the municipal House began following a Supreme Court order after three failed attempts earlier to hold the polls.
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Who is Shelly Oberoi?
Shelly Oberoi, 39, contested MCD polls for the first time from ward 86— East Patel Nagar. Oberoi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi, and also a lifetime member of the Indian Commerce Association. In the recently concluded MCD polls, she had registered victory from former Delhi BJP Chief Adesh Gupta’s home turf.
Oberoi has pursued her Doctorate in Philosophy from the School of Management Studies (SOMS), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and is also the recipient of best paper awards in different national and international conferences, besides winning a Gold medal (Prof Manubhai Shah Award) at ICA Conference. She has also been felicitated with the "Miss Kamla Rani Prize".
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On December 7, 2022, the AAP won the MCD polls with 134 seats, ending the 15-year rule of the BJP in the municipal corporation and reducing the Congress to just nine seats in a house of 250.
Aam Aadmi Party dislodged the Bharatiya Janata Party from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), breaking the streak of fifteen years. BJP were facing a huge anti-incumbency that brewed while they held power for three consecutive terms. To sink its nails in the boat, BJP had deployed party stalwarts including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and UP CM Yogi Adityanath for the election campaigning activities.
This election was very important for AAP, given the recent reunification of MCD. The Union government's decision to reunify three MCDs – North, South, and East into one – had created two centers of power in Delhi. A power struggle would have ensued if the BJP had won the MCD. Reunification necessitated a fresh delimitation exercise, which delayed the elections and decreased the number of wards from 272 to 250.
(With inputs from PTI)
