MCD Mayoral Election : Shelly And Aaley As Candidates Announced By Aam Aadmi Party

MCD Mayoral Election: Aam Aadmi Party announces the name of its candidate for mayoral election today. Shelly Oberoi as the AAP candidate for the top post has Aaley Muhammad Iqbal for the post of Deputy Mayor from AAP’s platform.

​MCD Mayoral Election: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is going to held the election to pick its next Mayor and Deputy Mayor on January 6, 2023.Today AAP’s national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal chaired a meeting of the party’s political affairs committee where the names of Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammed Iqbal were finalized as the party candidates for the post of MCD mayor and deputy mayor respectively.

MCD Mayoral Election: Shelly Oberoi (39), is a first time councilor who won from East Patel Nagar ward is going to be the candidate for the post of mayor of the MCD whereas Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, councilor from Chandni Mahal ward, will be the party’s candidate for the post of deputy mayor. AAP’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta announced the names following a meeting of the political affairs committee chaired by Arvind Kejriwal today,

Earlier working as a visiting professor prior to contesting the election, Shelly Oberoi is known as one of the pro-active leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party. On the other hand, Aaley Md Iqbal. son of AAP MLA Shoaib Iqbal, is a second time councilor and. Significantly, the post of the mayor is a female candidate reserved seat in the first of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s five-year tenure.

The MCD, one of the largest municipal bodies in the world, provides civic services to approximately 20 million citizens of Delhi, according to its website. It occupies an area of 1397.3 sq km which is sub-divided into 12 Zones i.e. Centre, South, West, Najafgarh, Rohini, Civil Lines, Karol Bagh, SP-City, Keshavpuram, Narela, Shahdara North and Shahdara South.

The MCD consisting of the 250 wards, has 42 seats reserved for SC candidates, 21 seats for SC Women candidates, and 104 seats will be reserved for women candidates. The total number of MCD wards in Delhi was reduced from 272 to 250 following a notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in May 2022, when Centre unified the three corporations into one. The BJP ruled the erstwhile three municipal corporations for over 15 years.

January 06 as the decisive date

At the first MCD meeting on January 6, the 250 municipal councilors will take oath, elect the mayor and deputy mayor, along with electing the six members of the standing committee. The election is held by secret ballot and no anti-defection laws are applicable in case of cross-voting, The post of the mayor is reserved for a female councilor in the first of the MCD’s five year tenure.

The results for MCD elections were announced on December 7, 2022. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 134 of the 250 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 104 while the Congress secured only 9 seats. Three wards elected independent candidates.

Mayor & Deputy Mayor Elections

The electoral college for the election of mayor now includes 250 elected councilors, seven members of Lok Sabha, three members of Rajya Sabha and 1/5th of the members of the Delhi Assembly nominated by the Speaker by rotation every year (13 MLAs). While 10 persons nominated by the LG (administrator) called Alderman are also part of the house of councilors, they do not have voting rights in the house.

Once the elections at the central level are over, the focus will shift to elections at the 12 administrative zones each of which is represented by a Wards Committee. Each zone can send one member to the powerful standing committee. As per the current distribution of councilors across the 12 zones, 4 zones have clear majority of BJP, 7 are dominated by AAP while one zone has close contest. “Aldermen have voting rights at the zonal level and they may tip the balance in some of these closely contested zones,” an official explained.

Nomination details

The nominations can be filed in the office of the Municipal Secretary on any working day between 11 am and 5 pm.
Election for the six members of the standing committee will also be held in the first meeting of the House.
The post of mayor of the MCD is reserved for a female member in the first year.
The post of mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for open category, third for reserved category, and the remaining two also being in the open category.