mcd
Photo: amar ujala
Soon after the Supreme Court’s decision, the process of mayor election has started. The corporation has sent the file to the Urban Development Department of the Delhi government for holding the mayor’s election. Now this file will be sent to the Lieutenant Governor (LG). It is expected that the file will be sent from the Delhi government to the LG office on Saturday itself and a formal seal will also be put on the dates of the mayor’s election from their side. The court has ordered that the notice of the first meeting of the corporation should be issued within 24 hours. In the order, the court also said that the mayor should be elected in the first meeting of the corporation. After the election is held, the deputy mayor under the chairmanship of the mayor and six members of the standing committee will be elected.
After the intervention of the court, it is expected that this time the mayor will be elected in the House meeting. As per the rules of MCD, at least three days’ notice has been given for the mayor’s election. On the other hand, the MCD has now sent the file for holding the mayoral elections to the Delhi government. Now it will be interesting to see for which dates the Delhi Government recommends to the LG regarding the dates of the elections and the LG gives his consent on this. For the time being, whenever the election is held, one thing has been made clear by the court’s order that the nominated councilors (aldermen) will not vote in the mayor’s election. Now the Aam Aadmi Party’s upper hand is expected to be more heavy than the BJP in the mayor’s election.
Elections held on December 4, first meeting after a month for mayor election
The MCD elections were held on December 4. The counting of votes took place on 7 December. Out of 250 wards, Aam Aadmi Party won 134 wards. The BJP won 104 wards, while the Congress got only nine seats. A meeting of the House was called for the mayoral election on January 6, almost a month after the election results. On this day, the Aam Aadmi Party opposed the Presiding Officer’s decision to first administer the oath to the nominated councillors, there was an uproar in the House and the Presiding Officer adjourned the House sine die.
The second meeting also turned into a ruckus
With the order of the LG, a meeting of the house was called again on January 24 for the mayoral election. Nominated members and councilors were sworn in on this day, but as soon as one of the AAP councilors wanted to talk to the corporation secretary by climbing on the dais, the BJP councilors strongly opposed it. Again the House was adjourned sine die. The Aam Aadmi Party marked its presence in the House by doing a head count in front of the media and proved its majority and also staged a sit-in in the House itself. On the other hand, BJP’s mayoral candidate Rekha Gupta also alleged that she was misbehaved with and she too sat on a dharna outside the House.
Uproar over voting of two MLAs
For the third time on February 6, a meeting of the house was called to hold the mayoral election. Presiding Officer Satya Sharma announced simultaneous elections for mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee. Along with this, announced the participation of nominated councilors in the mayoral election. AAP MLA Mahendra Goyal opposed this. On the other hand, BJP corporator Shikha Rai told the presiding officer that two AAP MLAs Akhilesh Pati Tripathi and Sanjeev Jha have been punished by the court, both of them are not eligible to vote in the mayoral election. The Presiding Officer supported him and asked both the AAP MLAs to leave the House. After this the ruckus increased and the presiding officer adjourned the proceedings of the House sine die.
Four meetings have failed
The meeting of the House was called for the fourth time on February 16 for the mayoral election, but before that, Aam Aadmi Party’s mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi reached the court regarding the election matter. It was decided on February 15 itself that the election of the Mayor would not be held on the 16th. It is now expected that the new dates for the mayoral election will be announced on Saturday. The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded East Patel Nagar corporator Shelly Oberoi and the BJP has fielded Shalimar Bagh-B ward corporator Rekha Gupta as its mayoral candidate.
