The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagdi as its candidates for elections to the posts of Mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Gupta is a three-term councillor from Shalimar Bagh whereas Bagdi was elected for the primary time from Ram Nagar.

Gupta, an advocate, was a councillor between 2007 and 2017 and has held numerous positions within the BJP. She can be vice-president of the All India BJP Mahila Morcha.

Bagdi is a first-time councillor, and has labored with the BJP’s youth wing for over a decade.

They will tackle the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi (39), who’s a former professor and first-time councillor from East Patel Nagar and deputy candidate Aaley Mohammed Iqbal (31), a three-time councillor from Chandni Mahal.

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Delhi BJP working president Virender Sachdeva stated his occasion balanced “youth and experience”.

“We will work for the success of our candidates,” stated Sachdeva.

AAP spokespersons didn’t reply to requests searching for touch upon the BJP’s candidates.

At the primary MCD assembly on January 6, the 250 councillors will take oath and elect the Mayor and deputy mayor, apart from six members of the standing committee. The Mayor (the publish is reserved for a girl within the first yr), deputy mayor and standing committee members will stay in workplace until April, after which recent elections will likely be held.

Kamaljeet Sehrawat (Dwarka), former Mayor of the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Gajendra Daral (Mundka) and Pankaj Luthra (Jhilmil) have been named as BJP’s candidates for the MCD’s standing committee.

In the civic elections held earlier this month, the AAP received 134 of Delhi’s 250 wards, whereas the BJP received 104 seats.

The electoral school for the election of Mayor consists of 250 councillors, 10 members of Parliament from Delhi, and 1/fifth of the members of the meeting (14) nominated by the speaker by rotation yearly. The Delhi meeting speaker on Friday nominated 13 AAP and one BJP lawmaker for illustration within the MCD.

Councillors are free to vote for anybody within the mayoral polls no matter occasion affiliations for the reason that anti-defection regulation doesn’t apply.

Meanwhile, two AAP councillors filed nominations for the mayoral elections. This prompted the BJP to allege a “rebellion” throughout the occasion, a declare the AAP rejected.

Apart from Oberoi and Iqbal, the AAP’s official picks for the Mayor and deputy mayor races respectively, the occasion’s CR Park councillor Ashu Thakur filed a nomination for the mayoral ballot, whereas Jalaj Kumar from Shalimar Bagh-A filed one for deputy.

Thakur, who’s a first-time councillor, stated she filed her nomination as a “dummy candidate”, normally fielded to make sure a celebration has a backup, within the occasion the first candidate’s nomination is rejected. “I have been associated with AAP for the past nine years,” stated Thakur.

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MCD municipal secretary Bhagwan Singh, nonetheless, stated, “Nominations are scrutinised when candidates file them. There is no scope of nominations being rejected.”

Delhi BJP working president Virender Sachdeva, stated, “It is clear that there is a rebellion in the AAP, and the party is changing its pre-announced candidates under pressure.”

An AAP official dismissed the claims. “The nominations of Oberoi and Iqbal have been accepted by the competent authority. Other such nominations, if any, will be withdrawn as per the rules and regulations within the stipulated timeline,” stated the AAP official.

Jalaj couldn’t be contacted for feedback.