BJP's senior councillor and outgoing leader Raja Iqbal Singh has been elected as the new mayor of Delhi. He defeated Congress' Mandeep Singh by 125 votes in a one-sided contest. 142 members participated in the election, out of which 141 votes were found valid, Raja got 133 votes, while Congress' Mandeep Singh got eight votes. One vote was declared invalid, this vote is said to be of a BJP member, because Congress has got eight votes equal to the number of its members.

BJP's Jai Bhagwan Yadav was elected unopposed as deputy mayor. 120 members did not participate in the election. These include all three Rajya Sabha MPs of Aam Aadmi Party, three MCD nominated MLAs and 113 councillors from the Assembly and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari. BJP has 135 members in the MCD House, but its candidate got only 133 votes. In fact, Manoj Tiwari did not come to vote and the vote of one of its members was cancelled.

On the other hand, despite being in power till yesterday, Aam Aadmi Party did not field its candidates in the Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections. Apart from this, it had also announced boycott of the elections for these posts. This was the first time in the history of MCD when the ruling party did not participate in the elections for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. In the event of its not contesting the elections, Congress fielded candidates for both these posts. No candidates were fielded in the three Mayor elections held earlier in this House. 10 MPs, 14 MLAs and 238 councillors had the right to vote in the Mayor election. 12 wards are vacant in MCD.

In view of getting the power of MCD, an atmosphere of enthusiasm was seen in the Civic Center BJP Councillor Party office since morning. State BJP President Virendra Sachdeva had reached three hours before the meeting of the House started at 2 pm. MPs and MLAs of this BJP had also come much before the meeting. They all remained present at the Civic Centre till Raja Iqbal took charge at 4.30pm.