AAP’s Mahesh Khinchi Elected as New Mayor of Delhi, Defeats BJP’s Kishan Lal by 3 Votes

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has once again captured the post of Mayor in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). AAP candidate Mahesh Khinchi won the mayoral election by defeating BJP candidate Kishan Lal by 3 votes. The election was held on Thursday, in which a total of 265 votes were cast, out of which 2 votes were declared invalid. Out of 263 valid votes, Mahesh Khinchi got 133 votes, while Kishan Lal got 130 votes.

Mahesh Khinchi, who is a councilor from Devnagar in Karol Bagh, will now take over as the new mayor of MCD. He will replace Shelly Oberoi, who was currently on extension. Oberoi was elected mayor in February 2023 and has been in office since then. However, the mayoral election in April 2024 could not be held due to an administrative problem. This time elections were held and Mahesh Khinchi won.

Actually, the mayor election was to be held in April 2024, but then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was in jail and his recommendation was necessary. Due to this the election was postponed. At that time the presiding officer had returned the file fixing the mayor election saying that there was no recommendation from the CM. Due to this, Shelly Oberoi was put on extension, which now ended after the election of Mahesh Khinchi.

During this election, 7 Congress councilors boycotted the voting. These Congress councilors distanced themselves from the election process, due to which there were some interruptions in the voting process. The councilors who boycotted included Mandeep Singh, Vedpal Chaudhary, Ariba Khan, Nazia Danish, Sameer Ahmed, Nazia Khatoon and Sheetal Chaudhary. During this, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari and Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal did not participate in the voting.