Khichi elected mayor of Delhi

 New Delhi: TheAam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Mahesh Khichi was elected as the next mayor of Delhi on Thursday, in a major boost to the ruling party in the national capital ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year.

Khichi, a Dalit candidate fielded by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Kishan Lal by a wafer-thin margin of three votes. While Khichi got 133 votes, Lal secured 130 votes. Two votes were declared invalid.

The polls, which were delayed from April due to a protracted war of words between the AAP and the BJP, saw the Congress boycott the voting process, demanding a full term for the mayor rather than the truncated tenure now on offer.

"I thank the MPs, MLAs, councillors, everyone for making me win in this election," said Mahesh Kumar Khichi after winning Delhi mayoral polls. This was the third mayoral term since the AAP came to power in the MCD in December 2022, ending the BJP’s 15-year rule.

The Congress staged a walkout from the House as the incoming Dalit mayor would hold the post only till April next year. However, of the eight Congress councillors, one resigned from the primary membership of the party to vote for AAP.

Sabila Begum, the Congress member who resigned, had previously defected to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party in 2022 before returning to the grand old party. She said the Congress decision to boycott polls would help BJP.