BJP's Raja Iqbal Singh is Delhi's new Mayor, Congress candidate gets just 8 votes

Delhi reclaimed control of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi after a two-year gap, as party candidate Raja Iqbal Singh was elected Mayor of Delhi, securing 133 out of 142 votes.

In Short

• BJP's Raja Iqbal Singh bagged 133 votes of 142 total votes
• AAP boycotts election, Congress candidate gets only eight votes
• Iqbal Singh promises non-discriminatory development for Delhi

The BJP candidate Raja Iqbal Singh was elected as the new Mayor of Delhi on Friday as the party reclaimed control of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) after a two-year gap.

With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) boycotting the election and the Congress reduced to a marginal presence, the BJP secured a comfortable victory, bagging 133 votes of the 142 total votes. Singh’s rival, Congress candidate Mandeep, managed only eight votes. One vote was declared invalid.

The current strength of the MCD stands at 238, with 12 seats vacant due to some councillors being elected to the Delhi Assembly and one to the Lok Sabha. Out of the original 250 seats, the BJP now holds 117 councillors, an increase from 104 in 2022, while AAP's count has fallen to 113, down from 134. Congress holds only eight seats.

The electoral college for the mayoral election consists of 238 councillors, 10 MPs -- seven from the Lok Sabha and three from the Rajya Sabha --, and 14 MLAs. The BJP's strength was further bolstered by the inclusion of 11 BJP MLAs as electoral college members.

The AAP announced a boycott of the mayoral election, citing alleged defections engineered by the BJP. In the previous mayoral election, in November 2024, AAP's Mahesh Kumar Khinchi won by a razor-thin margin of just three votes.

After winning the mayoral election, Iqbal Singh expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders, promising to make decisions for the development of the national capital without discrimination.

"I would like to thank Prime Minister Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, and other party leaders. I assure you that I will work in collaboration with the ruling party, the opposition, and the Congress. Decisions will be made for the development of Delhi without any discrimination," he said.

Iqbal Singh is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the MCD and has served as the former Mayor of North MCD, the Former Chairman of the Ward Committee in Civil Line Zone, and a former councillor of Mukherjee Nagar Ward 13.