Shelly Oberoi: AAP’s First-time Councillor Who Won from BJP Stronghold | All About Delhi’s New Mayor

Four attempts and a Supreme Court order later, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elected its new mayor as AAP candidate Shelly Oberoi emerged victorious on Wednesday. The first single mayor to be elected to the reunified civic body after 10 years, she received 150 votes against 116 of the BJP’s Rekha Gupta.

“We will start working on ‘Kejriwal ki 10 guarantees’ as top priority, which includes making the city garbage-free. I thank the chief minister and deputy CM as well as the people of Delhi for giving me this opportunity. We will have to work together with people’s participation,” Oberoi said, addressing the media after winning the election.

A first-time councillor, 39-year-old Oberoi was a former visiting faculty member at Delhi University who won from BJP stronghold East Patel Nagar during the civic polls in December last year. She defeated the BJP’s Deepali Kumar by 269 votes in the ward, which was the home turf of former Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta.

Oberoi joined the AAP in 2013 and was appointed Delhi unit vice-president of the Mahila Morcha two years ago. A resident of Patel Nagar, the new mayor was born and brought up in the national capital.

“She is well-read and well-intentioned. Holding a PhD in commerce, she has been associated with the party for eight to nine years as a grassroots worker. She has worked on the ground and knows the city well,” said party spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj.

Oberoi is also a member of the Indian Commerce Association (ICA) for life and completed her PhD from Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Management Studies. She has won several awards at different conferences.

She moved court after the third attempt at electing a mayor in the House failed. The mayoral elections have been postponed thrice since January 6, when the first meeting of the MCD House was convened following a ruckus over giving voting rights to members nominated by lieutenant governor VK Saxena. All the 10 aldermen nominated by Saxena are BJP members.

The mayoral polls were then conducted on Wednesday following an SC order dated February 17, which stated that nominated members will play no role in the voting process. The order said within 24 hours, a notice must be issued to convene the MCD’s first meeting to fix the date of the elections to mayor, deputy mayor and members of the standing committee of the civic body.

The court issued the order after hearing Oberoi’s plea, which sought early conduct of the election to the post. The AAP had emerged as the single largest party in the civic polls held on December 4, 2022, where it bagged 134 wards and ended the BJP’s 15-year rule. The BJP stood second with 104 wards while the Congress won nine wards in the 250-member House.

Before this, the MCD – reunified on May 22, 2022 – had three mayors. Now, Oberoi alone faces the massive challenge of improving Delhi’s civic infrastructure with her party ruling the MCD as well as the government. Over the years, there was a power tussle between the BJP-ruled MCD and AAP-ruled Delhi, and it was easy for both parties to pass the buck on the issue of development.

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