India, April 25 -- Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Raja Iqbal Singh is poised to become the next mayor of Delhi on Friday, after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced a boycott of the election. The AAP lost its majority in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) following a series of defections to the BJP in the wake of the latter's victory in the Delhi Assembly elections in February.

Although the Congress has fielded Mandeep Singh, a councillor from Nangloi, the numbers overwhelmingly favour the BJP, which currently has the support of 135 councillors. With 119 AAP councillors abstaining and 12 seats vacant, the 274-member electoral college offers little room for contest. The Congress has just eight councillors.

A senior MCD official said...