Ruling AAP escapes defeat by slim margin as Mahesh Khichi bags Mayor’s post

AAP’s Ravinder Bharadwaj elected Deputy Mayor unopposed as BJP withdraws from the contest; Congress boycotts voting over truncated tenure for Dalit Mayor due to seven-month delay in polls 

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Mahesh Khichi was elected Delhi’s next Mayor by a wafer-thin margin of three votes on Thursday, a major boost for the ruling party ahead of the Assembly election due in February next year.

The BJP withdrew from the race for Deputy Mayor, clearing the way for AAP’s Ravinder Bharadwaj — a councillor from Aman Vihar (Ward No. 41) — to secure the post unopposed. The BJP had fielded Sadatpur (Ward No. 247) councillor Neeta Bisht for the Deputy Mayor’s post.

Mr. Khichi got 133 of the 265 votes polled against 130 of BJP’s Kishan Lal. Two votes were declared invalid.

The Congress’s seven councillors boycotted the voting process protesting over the seven-month delay in holding the elections and objected to a truncated five-month tenure for the next Mayor. The Mayor’s post is rotated among members from different social groups. This time, it is reserved for a councillor from the Scheduled Caste community.

The mayoral elections are an annual feature, with 250 councillors, 14 nominated members, Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha MPs and three Rajya Sabha members having the right to vote in the polls.

According to sources, several AAP councillors cross-voted, helping the BJP increase its vote share in the elections.

The AAP’s election win came against the backdrop of several party councillors switching sides to join the Opposition BJP, which had earlier in September clinched the controversial poll to fill the lone vacant position in the Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Later, the Supreme Court had put on hold the election of the chairperson of the Standing Committee, the civic body’s decision-making arm that has executive powers to grant approval to projects worth over ₹5 crore.

Earlier, the mayoral polls were scheduled to be held on April 26. These were postponed after Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena refused to appoint a Presiding Officer for it in the “absence of inputs” from then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was lodged in jail in a money laundering case related to the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy for 2020-21.

The elections were later supposed to be held in October. However, citing the festival season, these were postponed again.

‘Will work for people’

After AAP’s victory, Mr. Kejriwal congratulated Mr. Khichi. “Work diligently for the people and take forward the good work being done in the MCD,” the AAP national convener said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Mr. Khichi, a councillor from Dev Nagar (Ward No. 84), too promised to work for the people.

“The people of Delhi are with AAP and we will emerge victorious in the Assembly election too,” he told mediapersons.

Commenting on his slim margin of victory and if cross-voting was a concern, he said, “A win is a win even if it is by one vote.”

‘Elections were a farce’

The Delhi Congress said it decided to boycott the elections as the whole exercise seemed like a “farce”, with incumbent Shelly Oberoi overstaying as Mayor for nearly seven months to deny the next Dalit Mayor a full term.

Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav told reporters, “The delay in the election of the Mayor will deny a Dalit an opportunity to serve a full term, which is not only unconstitutional but also anti-Dalit.”

“Under such circumstances, the Congress councillors saw no logic in participating in the mayoral elections and decided to boycott these,” Mr. Yadav said accusing the ruling AAP and the BJP of doing nothing for the Delhi residents in the past years.

Published - November 15, 2024 12:59 am IST