The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for elections to the posts of Mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Gupta is a three-term councillor from Shalimar Bagh while Bagdi was elected for the first time from Ram Nagar.
Gupta, an advocate, was a councillor between 2007 and 2017 and has held various positions in the BJP. She is also vice-president of the All India BJP Mahila Morcha.
Bagdi is a first-time councillor, and has worked with the BJP’s youth wing for over a decade.
They will take on the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi (39), who is a former professor and first-time councillor from East Patel Nagar and deputy candidate Aaley Mohammed Iqbal (31), a three-time councillor from Chandni Mahal.
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Delhi BJP working president Virender Sachdeva said his party balanced “youth and experience”.
“We will work for the success of our candidates,” said Sachdeva.
AAP spokespersons did not respond to requests seeking comment on the BJP’s candidates.
At the first MCD meeting on January 6, the 250 councillors will take oath and elect the Mayor and deputy mayor, besides six members of the standing committee. The Mayor (the post is reserved for a woman in the first year), deputy mayor and standing committee members will remain in office till April, after which fresh elections will be held.
Kamaljeet Sehrawat (Dwarka), former Mayor of the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Gajendra Daral (Mundka) and Pankaj Luthra (Jhilmil) have been named as BJP’s candidates for the MCD’s standing committee.
In the civic elections held earlier this month, the AAP won 134 of Delhi’s 250 wards, while the BJP won 104 seats.
The electoral college for the election of Mayor includes 250 councillors, 10 members of Parliament from Delhi, and 1/5th of the members of the assembly (14) nominated by the speaker by rotation annually. The Delhi assembly speaker on Friday nominated 13 AAP and one BJP lawmaker for representation in the MCD.
Councillors are free to vote for anyone in the mayoral polls irrespective of party affiliations since the anti-defection law does not apply.
Meanwhile, two AAP councillors filed nominations for the mayoral elections. This prompted the BJP to allege a “rebellion” within the party, a claim the AAP rejected.
Apart from Oberoi and Iqbal, the AAP’s official picks for the Mayor and deputy mayor races respectively, the party’s CR Park councillor Ashu Thakur filed a nomination for the mayoral poll, while Jalaj Kumar from Shalimar Bagh-A filed one for deputy.
Thakur, who is a first-time councillor, said she filed her nomination as a “dummy candidate”, usually fielded to ensure a party has a backup, in the event the primary candidate’s nomination is rejected. “I have been associated with AAP for the past nine years,” said Thakur.
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MCD municipal secretary Bhagwan Singh, however, said, “Nominations are scrutinised when candidates file them. There is no scope of nominations being rejected.”
Delhi BJP working president Virender Sachdeva, said, “It is clear that there is a rebellion in the AAP, and the party is changing its pre-announced candidates under pressure.”
An AAP official dismissed the claims. “The nominations of Oberoi and Iqbal have been accepted by the competent authority. Other such nominations, if any, will be withdrawn as per the rules and regulations within the stipulated timeline,” said the AAP official.
Jalaj could not be contacted for comments.
