AAP fields Oberoi, Iqbal for mayoral polls

New Delhi:MCD Mayor Shelly Oberoi and Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal on Monday filed their nominations for the April 26 mayoral elections for a possible second consecutive term, with the AAP confident its candidates are poised for a win.

"We will repeat Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal as candidates for mayor and deputy mayor posts respectively. AAP had emerged victorious despite the BJP's attempts to disrupt the mayoral polls earlier. Our candidates will win the polls this time too," AAP leader Sanjay Singh said in a press conference earlier in the day. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elects a new mayor after the end of every financial year. Singh also accused the opposition BJP of attempting to disrupt the mayoral polls earlier. Despite that, the AAP emerged victorious, he added. Oberoi and Iqbal later filed their nomination papers in the presence of AAP leaders Singh and Atishi.

The post of the mayor sees five single-year terms on a rotation 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 December 4 civic polls last year were the first after the three corporations were unified into the MCD and a fresh delimitation exercise was carried out, reducing the total number of wards from 272 in 2012 to 250. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had emerged victorious in the polls

The BJP on Monday staged a protest near the Delhi Assembly demanding Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation over the alleged excise policy scam. Kejriwal is the "mastermind" of the "liquor scam" and he will have to go, the BJP's Delhi unit Virendra Sachdeva charged as he led the protesters.

The police detained some of the protesters, including Sachdeva, as they marched from Chandgi Ram Akhara towards the Delhi Assembly and tried to dismantle the barricades. Kejriwal was on Sunday questioned for nearly nine hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a witness in the excise policy case.

He was asked 56 questions related to the now-scrapped policy at the CBI headquarters. The entire excise policy case is false and the result of dirty politics, he said after his questioning. The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by the Kejriwal government after Lt Governor VK Saxena last July recommended a CBI probe into alleged violation of rules in its implementation. Kejriwal's former deputy Manish Sisodia, who had held charge of the Excise department, was arrested by the CBI in February in connection with the case.