NEW DELHI: The Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be held on April 26, an official said on Wednesday.
According to the MCD secretary's office, the Ordinary April (2024) meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be held on Friday, April 26, 2024, at 11.00 a.m. in Aruna Asaf Ali Auditorium, A-Block, 4th Floor, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, New Delhi.
“Election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor will also be held in this meeting of the corporation,” it said in an order released on Wednesday.
The MCD House, comprising 250 members, holds significant sway in Delhi's political landscape. Presently, the AAP holds the majority with 134 councillors, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) commands 104 seats, with the support of an Independent councillor, elevating its tally to 105.
The Congress trails behind with nine seats, while the remaining members consist of two independent councillors.
Mayor Shelly Oberoi, Deputy Mayor Aaley Iqbal, and Leader of the House Mukesh Goel currently hold key positions in the MCD.
The question on everyone's mind is whether AAP leader Shelly Oberoi will retain the position of Mayor or who will be AAP face this time.
This political battle marks the first major electoral event after AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by ED in the excise policy case.
YS Sharmila Reddy also roped in Telangana Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy for a meeting at Visakhapatnam to oppose the Centre’s move to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel plant.
As the state politics is dominated by two key regional players YSRCP and TDP, both BJP and Congress have no significant presence.
In the 2014 elections, Congress secured only 2.77 per cent votes and drew a blank due to public anger over division of Andhra Pradesh. Since then the party lost many top leaders to the YSRCP or the TDP.
For the second-consecutive election in 2019, the Congress did not win a single Lok Sabha or Assembly seat while its vote share plunged further to 1.23 per cent.
According to political analyst Palwai Raghava Reddy, after the appointment of YS Sharmila Reddy as state Congress chief, some activity was seen in the Congress camp after a very long time.
“There is an excitement among Congress cadres. This is only the beginning as reviving the party after the massive drubbing in two successive elections is a huge task,” he said.
The analyst, however, believes that if the Congress can increase its vote share to 5 to 10 per cent and at least have some representation in the Assembly, this will provide a platform to rebuild the party.