AAP's Mahesh Khichi elected as next Delhi mayor

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Mahesh Khichi was elected as the next mayor of Delhi on Thursday, in a major boost to the ruling party in the national capital ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year.

Khichi, a Dalit candidate fielded by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Kishan Lal by a wafer-thin margin of three votes. While Khichi got 133 votes, Lal secured 130 votes. Two votes were declared invalid.

The eight councillors of the Congress did not participate in the voting process.

The counting of the votes polled for the election of the deputy mayor is underway.

The polls, which were delayed from April due to a protracted war of words between the AAP and the BJP, saw the Congress boycott the voting process, demanding a full term for the mayor rather than the truncated tenure now on offer.