Aam Aadmi Party’s Mahesh Khinchi —  councillor from Karol Bagh’s Dev Nagar ward — will be the next Mayor of Delhi, having won the election by a wafer-thin margin. Mr Khinchi, Delhi’s first Dalit Mayor, got 133 votes and the BJP’s Kishan Pal 130 votes in the election held this evening after much chaos and disruption that included a walkout by the Congress members.  AAP’s Ravindra Bhardwaj was elected unopposed to the post of Deputy Mayor.

BJP councilor Ms Neeta Bisht, the opponent of Mr Bhardwaj, a councilor from Aman Vihar, Ward No. 41, had withdrawn her nomination at the last minute. 

Virendra Sachdeva Delhi BJP President stated that Arvind Kejriwal’s party won the Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor election yet ultimately lost politically and with it Arvind Kejriwal has also lost the moral ground to remain in the position of Aam Aadmi Party convener. Sachdeva said that at least eight councilors of the Aam Aadmi Party voted in favor of the BJP, while two others intentionally invalidated their votes, which is a significant moral defeat for Arvind Kejriwal

He stated that, from the beginning, we have said that Arvind Kejriwal is anti-Dalit, and today, in the municipal corporation session, 10 councilors did not vote in favor of AAP’s Dalit candidate for Mayor, which in some way could be seen as a reflection of the party’s anti-Dalit sentiment.