Pravesh Wahi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor from Rohini East, was on Monday elected as the mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). BJP, which also has a majority in the House, also secured the post of deputy mayor and two more seats on the standing committee.
Wahi received 156 out of 165 votes, with Hazi Zaraf of the Congress, the only other candidate, securing the other nine votes. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did not contest the polls.
The voting process, which started around 2:10pm, was over in 2 hours —around 4pm. The electoral college for electing the mayor comprises of 274 members — all 250 MCD councillors, 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi Assembly, seven Lok Sabha MPs, and three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi. Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, who switched over from the BJP to AAP last week, also turned up to vote.
After winning, Wahi said that clearing landfill sites by December will be his priority and he will jump start regular inspections of biomining work at garbage mounds from Thursday. He also said that no sealing action will be taken under this watch, citing a citywide survey to identify the misuse of residential premises for commercial and other non-residential purposes announced in line with Supreme Court directions by the MCD commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar last week.
“Only survey will be carried out no sealing will be carried out. We will allow these activities in shops upto 20sqm,” he said. Wahi said that he has set a target of MCD securing position among top ten cities in national sanitation ranking.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva, who was at the Civic Centre headquarter, said that this time the BJP has given equal opportunity to both experience and youthful energy within its municipal team. The long experience of newly elected mayor will contribute to improving the upkeep of Delhi.
Monika Pant, the BJP councillor from Anand Vihar, was elected deputy mayor as Congress agreed to withdraw citing the results of the mayoral election. The three standing committee members — BJP’s Jai Bhagwan Yadav (Begumpur) and Manish Chadha (Paharganj),as well as Jalaj Chaudhary from (Shalimar Bagh) from AAP — were also elected without any voting.
The AAP, who had 100 councillors, 2 RS members and three MLAs, sat out the election entirely.
Leader of Opposition (LoP) Ankush Narang said, “The BJP has once again formed the government in the MCD. Along with the people of Delhi, we hope that, unlike last year, the BJP will not disappoint Delhiites this year.”
On the party’s decision not to contest the mayoral election, he said that the Aam Aadmi Party does not indulge in the buying and selling of councillors like the BJP; therefore, it did not contest the mayoral election.
The MCD was reconstituted as a unified body on May 22, 2022, after the merger of the East, North, and South Delhi Municipal Corporations. AAP had won the 2022 elections with its councillors Shelly Oberoi and Mahesh Khichi being elected as mayors in first two years. Last year, BJP won the election after a series of defections from AAP.