AAP won't contest Delhi Mayor polls, points to BJP's 'triple-engine sarkar'

Days ahead of the April 25 polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced that it will not contest the mayoral election in Delhi. The party currently lacks the numbers in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds a majority.

“We have decided that we will not field an Aam Aadmi Party candidate in the Mayor’s elections this time. BJP should elect its own Mayor, BJP should form its own standing committee and should rule Delhi without any excuses,” AAP Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj said today. Bharadwaj said there’s a triple-engine government in Delhi now and the BJP should show what they can do for the people of the national capital.

Delhi Municipal Corporation will convene its ordinary meeting on April 25, during which elections for mayor and deputy mayor will be conducted. The nomination process started on April 15 and will end at 5 pm today (April 21). Candidates have the option to withdraw their nominations any time before the election takes place.

The term of incumbent mayor Mahesh Kumar ended on March 31. In the last mayoral election, AAP achieved a narrow victory, as its candidate Mahesh Kumar won by a slim three-vote margin against BJP’s Kishan Lal.

In recent months, the AAP and the BJP-led Delhi government have been at loggerheads over the Mahila Samman Yojana. The AAP has accused the ruling party of not implementing the scheme, which seeks to provide eligible women with monthly financial assistance of ₹2,500. The scheme was a key poll planck of the BJP in the hotly contested Delhi polls.

In February, the BJP returned to power in the national capital – for the first time in over two decades – after defeating the AAP. The party, which had been out of power for 27 years, bagged the victory by securing 48 of the 70 Assembly seats. This marked a turnaround for the BJP, which had managed only 11 seats in the previous two elections combined. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), seeking a third consecutive term, suffered a major setback, securing just 22 seats.