On Wednesday, the AAP poked fun at the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming that after its mayoral candidate withdrew her candidacy, the party as a whole had been humiliated.
After their respective competitors Sikha Rai and Soni Pal withdrew their candidacies on Wednesday, Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammad Iqbal of the Aam Aadmi Party were elected to a second term as mayor and deputy mayor of Delhi, respectively.
Speaking during a news conference, Saurabh Bharadwaj Bharadwaj, the lead spokesman for the AAP, criticized the BJP for choosing to run in the election despite not having enough council members to endorse their candidacy.
He emphasized what a humiliating loss this was for the BJP and added that they should have either opted not to run in the election or had the guts to do so.
“On the one hand, the BJP agrees to contest the election and names its contenders, but when the time comes for combat, it gives up. They gave up on it as well after yelling to the media that they had the majority and that the BJP will be the mayor, according to Bharadwaj, who is also Delhi's minister of urban development.
“As a result, I believe that the BJP as a whole feels embarrassed today. Not only has their Delhi branch disgraced itself, but also the national unit of the party, he said.
However, the Delhi BJP said that it has chosen to withdraw the nominations because “despite our best efforts, the AAP is not ready to make MCD functional by allowing the formation of the standing committee and the ward committees”.
Bharadwaj said that the BJP has been attempting to purchase councilors since since they nominated a candidate for mayor, and that this demonstrates their eagerness to succeed at any costs.
The recent victory in the mayoral elections has only strengthened the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's position, he said, adding that they have pledged to make the civic body free of corruption and improve the living conditions of the residents. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been working to improve the conditions of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
“We want to thank the residents of Delhi and want to inform them that the developmental works that have been started in the MCD by Dr. Shelly Oberoi will now further gather pace and once the Standing Committee is constituted these works will be completed at the earliest,” he added.
The incumbent Oberoi and challenger Rai were expected to face off directly in the Delhi mayoral race.
In the MCD, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now in power.
