Ruckus in MCD after delay in mayor polls
Chaos gripped Civic Centre on Friday as a meeting of Delhi’s councillors turned into pandemonium and a mudslinging contest between members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the postponement of the city’s mayoral polls a day ago.
Both parties accused each other of being against Dalits, given that the third term of the Delhi mayor is reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate, even as the AAP called the delay the “murder of the Constitution” and the BJP argued the AAP intentionally caused the delay.
Eventually, the Civic Centre’s proceedings were adjourned without any business, casting
further questions over Delhi’s mayoral elections, which were slated to be held on Friday, but pushed back indefinitely on Thursday after lieutenant governor VK Saxena declined to
appoint a presiding officer for the process without inputs from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is behind bars.
The meeting was due to start at 11am, but was delayed as AAP councillors gathered around the statue of BR Ambedkar. Minutes later, BJP members surrounded the mayor’s chair, even as swarms of Delhi Police and central security personnel stood guard in the headquarters to keep violence and clashes at bay.
Around 11.25am, BJP members raised slogans demanding the official proceedings get underway.
The sitting began 15 minutes later when AAP members entered the house. However, mayhem struck within seconds, as councillors from both parties climbed on to furniture.
Once the meeting ended, a section of BJP councillors danced in the House and played the party’s campaign songs in the chamber. They brought their own portable speaker, inviting the ire of AAP leaders. Senior AAP leader Atishi shared a clip of the commotion on X, alleging that that BJP councillors were celebrating “because as a Dalit person was not elected mayor.”
The BJP made a similar accusation, adding that the AAP did not complete procedural formalities because it did not want the polls to be held.
Saxena, in a note to the chief secretary on Thursday, quoted the chief minister’s office as saying, “As the Chief Minister is presently under JC, the CMO is not in a position to either communicate or put up the file before him for his direction/ instructions…”
The AAP’S MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said: “Who has stopped the LG from taking the CM’S recommendation (for presiding officer)? The CM could have appointed a minister and he would have given the recommendation to the LG... The LG did not send the file to the minister at all”.
According to the rules, the chief secretary has to send the file over the appointment of a presiding officer to the state’s urban development minister, who in turn sends it to the chief minister, after which it is forwarded to the LG for a final approval.
However, the AAP has alleged that this process was circumvented and that Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar forwarded the file to Saxena, bypassing urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Kejriwal.
The LG office did not comment on the matter.