New Delhi: Pravesh Wahi, a BJP councillor from Rohini East, was elected mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today. He was backed by 156 votes, including 14 from the Indraprastha Vikas Party. The Congress candidate, Hazi Zaraf, received nine.

Monika Pant, BJP councillor from Anand Vihar, was elected deputy mayor with the same vote count. Jai Bhagwan Yadav from Begumpur, and Manish Chadha from Paharganj won seats on the standing committee from the BJP.

The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Jalaj Chaudhary from Shalimar Bagh also made it to the panel.

The electoral college comprised 273 votes - 249 councillors, 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi assembly, seven Lok Sabha MPs, and three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi. The winning threshold was 137.

The AAP sat out the election. Its Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said the abstention was a strategic choice. He said the move would give the BJP full ownership of the civic body and hand the AAP the grounds to "expose" the ruling party on matters linked to governance.

The AAP had held the mayor's post since November 2024, when Mahesh Kumar Khinchi won by three votes. Wahi, on being elected, said the corporation would clean Delhi and work for its development. He thanked Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and the BJP leadership.

The MCD was reconstituted as a unified body on May 22, 2022, after the merger of the East, North, and South Delhi Municipal Corporations.

Source: NDTV