AAP's Khichi elected mayor

Dev Nagar councillor to get truncated term of 5 months as MCD's annual mayoral cycle is due to end in April

- Paras Singh

Forty-five-year-old Mahesh Kumar Khichi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor from the Dev Nagar ward in Karol Bagh, won the mayoral elections on Thursday, narrowly beating out Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) Kishan Lal by three votes in a four-and-a-half-hour event that clocked significant cross-voting by AAP members. The Congress, meanwhile, boycotted the election process.

A total of 265 votes were cast, of which two votes were declared invalid. The AAP secured 133 votes and the BJP, 130 votes. In the deputy mayor polls, AAP's Ravinder Bhardwaj, 35, from Aman Vihar was elected unopposed as the BJP withdrew its nomination.

However, Khichi will be mayor for less than five months — MCD councillors are elected every five years, but the councillors themselves elect a mayor from amongst their ranks on an annual basis every April.

After he was declared the victor by presiding officer Satya Sharma, Khichi — who took over as the next mayor of Delhi from incumbent Shelly Oberoi — said he will prioritise cleanliness in his five-month tenure.

"There has been cross voting but a victory is a victory even if I win by a single vote or three votes. Minor disagreements can happen. My priority will be to revitalise the sanitation system of the Capital and serve people. Delhi elections will take place shortly and we will ensure that the AAP wins with a clear majority," he said.