Aam Aadmi Party candidate Mahesh Khinchi defeated the BJP candidate to become the new Delhi Mayor on Thursday. A total of 265 votes were cast out of which 2 were declared invalid. Khinchi garnered 133 votes while his BJP rival Kishan Lal got 130 votes.
46-year-old Khinchi is the AAP councillor from Karol Bagh's Dev Nagar ward. Interestingly, the BJP had only 120 votes but managed to get 130 in voting, which indicates cross-voting in favour of the BJP by voters from AAP.
AAP's Ravindra Bhardwaj wins Deputy Mayor post
AAP leader Ravindra Bhardwaj won the Deputy Mayor of Delhi post unopposed after BJP nominee Neeta Bisht withdrew her nomination.
The voting for the post began at around 3:30 pm in the house under the watch of presiding officer Satya Sharma. According to the established procedure, MPs cast their votes, followed by MLAs and finally councillors.
Before the polling, Congress councillors created a ruckus in the House, accusing the AAP mayor of usurping the rights of Dalits. Congress councillors shouted slogans like 'Kejriwal is anti-Dalit'. All 8 Congress councillors walked out of the House. A total of eight, including seven councillors from Congress and Swati Maliwal, did not cast their votes. Maliwal did not cast the vote as she was out of India.
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.
