On April 26th, 2023, Wednesday, The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elected a new mayor and a deputy mayor. The Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Shelly Oberoi was unanimously elected as the Mayor of MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) for the second consecutive term as her rival, a BJP candidate Shikha Rai withdrew her nomination. The elections were held at the time when the Civic body was yet to choose the powerful Standing Committee, which plays an important role in the local government.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Shelly Oberoi was pitted in today’s election against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Shikha Rai from Greater Kailash. On the other hand, incumbent deputy mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also got another term as deputy mayor after BJP candidate Soni Patel withdrew her nomination. AAP’s Shelly Oberoi was elected as the MCD Mayor in the fourth attempt after much ruckus between the BJP and AAP, earlier in the year.

Being the ruling party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the win comes as a big relief for the AAP. The last three attempts to elect the Mayor failed due to the political bickering between the AAP and the BJP. They met for the first time on 6th January, after that on 24th January, and last on 6th February. In the history of MCD elections, only eight mayors have served for more than a year, and now AAP’s Shelly Oberoi will be the ninth such mayor. 

The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal took to his Twitter, “Congratulations Shelly and Aley on again becoming Mayor and Deputy Mayor, this time unopposed. Best wishes to both of them, people have huge expectations from us. We have to work really hard to meet the expectations.” The post of mayor in the national capital sees five single-term elections on a rotational basis with the first year reserved for women, for the open category the second year is reserved, and the reserved category got third year. At the end of the annual year, the city gets its new mayor.