New Delhi, Sep 27 (PTI) The BJP won the last vacant seat of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s 18-member Standing Committee unopposed on Friday as the councillors of the ruling AAP and Congress boycotted the election.
Hitting out at the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the saffron party has wrongly taken over the control of the civic body by stealing the mandate and termed the act as “hooliganism”.
BJP’s candidate Sunder Singh got all 115 votes of the party’s councillors while the AAP’s Nirmala Kumari did not receive any votes.
The AAP may challenge the poll result in court, a party functionary said.
The standing committee is the highest decision-making body of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Policy proposals involving an expenditure of Rs 5 crore and above require the standing committee’s approval.
With the poll result, the BJP now has 10 members in the panel while the ruling AAP has only eight. This means the BJP will have more say in approving proposals in the panel.
The seat fell vacant after BJP councillor Kamaljeet Sehrawat was elected as the Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi.
On Friday, only BJP councillors were present in the House to cast their votes. Both the AAP and the Congress boycotted the election, citing alleged procedural irregularities and accusing the BJP of attempting to manipulate the process to its advantage.
The Congress on Thursday announced its councillors would abstain from voting to remain “neutral” and to avoid “horse trading”.
Following the election, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the party has a majority in the Standing Committee and wants to complete all essential tasks immediately.
Sachdeva slammed the AAP for boycotting the election and said, “If the AAP had participated, Delhi would have realised today that the party had lost the majority in the corporation. If they had the majority, Kejriwal would not have avoided the election.” As soon as the results were announced, celebrations broke out in the House and BJP councillors started raising slogans like “Bharat Mata ki Jai”.
On Thursday, Mayor Shelly Oberoi had postponed the election till October 5, following disruption over the frisking of councillors.
However, Lt Governor V K Saxena, in a late-night development, overturned the decision and directed MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar to hold the election on Friday.
Saxena also appointed Additional Commissioner Jitender Yadav to preside over the MCD’s House meeting for the purpose of election to the vacant seat of the standing committee.
Hitting out at the LG in the Delhi Assembly, Kejriwal said there is a provision that a notice should be given to all the councillors 72 hours before any meeting.
However, they issued a notice on Thursday night for holding the election at 1 pm on Friday, he said, adding that neither the LG nor the Commissioner has the power to do so.
Kejriwal said Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh sacrificed their lives to ensure that the country is free and democratic, and the people have the right to elect their representatives to run the government.
“They (freedom fighters) did not sacrifice their lives so that an LG or officers would sideline the elected representatives and run the government as per their wish,” he said.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act lays down that only a mayor can preside over the House meeting of the civic body, he added.
But, the LG passed an order appointing an officer to preside over the meeting instead of the mayor, the AAP leader said.
“This is hooliganism. Councillors were sent WhatsApp messages for the House meeting. Half of them got it and many were out of Delhi. Is this an election? We strongly condemn it,” the AAP supremo said.
Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Oberoi termed the election “unconstitutional” and announced that AAP councillors would not take part in it.
In response to the municipal commissioner’s direction to hold the poll on Friday, Oberoi alleged that his order was illegal and unconstitutional.
It is a “gross violation” of the statutory scheme of the DMC Act and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Procedure & Conduct Of Business) Regulations, 1958, apart from being contrary to the touchstone of a fair democratic process, she said.
In the evening, the BJP said the Leader of the Opposition in the MCD, Raja Iqbal Singh, has filed a contempt petition against Oberoi in the Supreme Court over her failure to hold the standing committee member election on September 26 despite the apex court’s order.
Before polling commenced, an MCD official laid out rules for the casting of votes.
He pointed out that no mobile phones were allowed in the House during the elections — a point of contention because of which the polls were postponed on Thursday. PTI SJJ VIT BUN RHL
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