BJP enters MCD mayoral poll race; fields GK councillor Shikha Rai

The BJP on Tuesday fielded Shikha Rai and Soni Pandey for the election of the mayor and the deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), despite not having adequate numbers in the House.

Accompanied by Delhi BJP leaders, Rai and Pandey filed their papers for the polls to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively on Tuesday, the last day of filing nominations.

Rai is the councillor from the Greater Kailash-1 ward, while Pandey represents northeast Delhi's Sonia Vihar ward in the civic body.

Earlier, a top Delhi BJP leader had claimed that the saffron party was not likely to contest the polls as there was a "clear mandate" in the favour of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The AAP has re-nominated incumbent mayor Shelly Oberoi and deputy mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal for the posts.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders hoped that the councillors in the MCD will elect Rai.

"The BJP is determined to run a good, clean and strong municipal corporation and we hope that all corporators will elect the experienced senior councillor of the party," Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said.

Rai said she will seek votes from the councillors on the basis of her vision for the MCD. A former vice-president of the Delhi BJP, she gained prominence after joining other leaders of the saffron party in hoisting the tricolour at Srinagar's Lal Chowk in 2011.

A lawyer by profession, Rai is an experienced councillor of the civic body where she held the posts of leader of the House in 2017-18 and chairman of the standing committee in 2018-19.

The one-year term of the MCD mayor begins in April. The post has five single-year terms on a rotational basis, with the first year being reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category and the remaining two again for the open category.

The BJP had contested the election for the post of mayor of the unified MCD in February despite not having the necessary votes to emerge victorious. Oberoi had defeated BJP councillor Rekha Gupta in the February poll by 34 votes.

Iqbal too had defeated his opponent from the BJP.

The AAP won the MCD polls held in December last year. It ended the BJP's 15-year rule at the civic body. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party bagged 134 of the 250 wards, while the BJP got 104.