Another AAP fortress crumbling as BJP eyes Delhi Mayor post

New Delhi: Another AAP fortress in Delhi is crumbling after the Assembly elections, with the BJP eyeing the post of Mayor in the national capital's municipal corporation where its rival has the numbers on paper.

The BJP has now changed gears in wooing councillors from the AAP to its side. Already, the saffron party has equalled the number of councillors at 115-115 after three AAP councillors joined the BJP on Saturday.

Delhi BJP sources indicated that before April, they are in the process of engineering more defections. They claimed councillors are upset with AAP leadership and willing to desert the party.

The anti-defection law does not apply in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, whose strength is pegged at 250. However, ten MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and 14 MLAs nominated by the Speaker have voting rights in the Mayor election, taking the total votes to 274.

In the 2022 elections to the MCD, AAP had won 134 wards against BJP's 104 and Congress nine among others. At present, there are 12 vacancies after 11 (8 BJP and 3 AAP) of them were elected as MLA and one as an MP (BJP).

Following defections, BJP numbers have risen to 115 while AAP has come down to 115 and Congress down to eight.

With the Assembly results changing the dynamics, the BJP now has 132 votes while the AAP has 122 votes. The 132 BJP votes came from 115 councillors, seven Lok Sabha MPs and ten MLAs as per its present strength while AAP votes included three Rajya Sabha MPs and four MLAs. At present, 13 MLAs nominated to MCD are from AAP while only one is from BJP.

Even if Congress, which has abstained from voting in the past three Mayoral elections in which AAP won, votes in favour of AAP, it would be difficult for it to bag the post in April.

Mayor and Deputy Mayor are elected in Delhi every April from among the councillors elected for a term of five years. The 2022 elections were held in December though the term had ended in April that year as the government wanted to merge three corporations into one.

As per law, the tenure of a Mayor in Delhi is one year and elections are held every year in the MCD to choose one. The first year is reserved for women while the third year is earmarked for a Dalit and second, fourth and fifth year are unreserved.

In the elections held in November last year after a delay as both AAP and BJP played hardball, AAP had scraped through. AAP's Mahesh Khichi bagged 133 of 265 votes polled while his BJP rival Kishan Lal got 130 while two votes were declared invalid. BJP leaders claimed eight AAP councillors cross-voted while two votes -- a BJP councillor and an AAP councillor -- were declared invalid.