NEW DELHI: BJP leader Raja Iqbal Singh was declared the new Mayor of Delhi after winning 133 out of 142 votes cast in the mayoral election held on Thursday. Congress candidate received 8 votes while one vote was declared invalid.
The AAP had already stepped out of the race earlier this week.

Singh had filed his nomination along with BJP’s deputy mayoral candidate Jai Bhagwan Yadav at the municipal secretary’s office on Monday. Both leaders currently serve as the Leader and Deputy Leader of Opposition respectively in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Singh has also served as mayor of the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
AAP had announced its decision to boycott the mayoral elections citing mass defections of its councillors to the BJP. Delhi AAP chief Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that the BJP used “persuasive methods, including incentives and intimidation” to engineer defections.
“As a result, AAP has withdrawn from the mayoral election. With their triple-engine government in place, BJP should now fulfil its commitments without excuses,” Bhardwaj said.
The BJP’s numbers in the MCD have grown from 104 councillors in 2022 to 117 in 2025. The party’s strength was further boosted by the inclusion of 11 BJP MLAs as members of the MCD.
Reacting to the outcome, BJP Delhi spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said AAP was aware it had lost majority control in the civic body and had halted administrative work over the past two-and-a-half years. “Now the party is pretending to renounce its role. An AAP-Congress alliance may also be in the works,” Kapoor said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, announcing the party’s candidates earlier, said: “Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh will be our mayoral candidate and Jai Bhagwan Yadav our deputy mayor.”
Meanwhile, AAP leader Atishi alleged that the BJP had manipulated the MCD election process since 2022.
“They brought an Act in Parliament to unify the MCD, delaying elections, then used delimitation to their advantage. Even then, BJP lost the MCD polls held alongside Gujarat elections,” she said at a joint press conference with Bhardwaj.