Key Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections to appoint the Mayor of Delhi, the deputy mayor and six other members are to be held on January 24, according to the office of Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena.
The announcement also comes amid a stiff ongoing tussle between the Lt Governor and the ruling Kejriwal government. The two have been in loggerheads over the smooth functioning of Delhi with the Chief Minister and his AAP accusing the governor of interfering with the functioning of the government.
Last week, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia had tweeted that the Delhi government proposed four dates — January 18, 20, 21 or 24 — for the exercise.
A file regarding the proposal was later submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor amid the AAP government’s complaints that the civic body has been working without a Mayor for eight months, and there should not be any more delays.
The first meeting of newly elected MCD House on January 6 was adjourned due to ruckus over the oath to aldermen appointed by the LG. The AAP councilors and MLAs in the House had accused that there was a ploy to get voting rights for the aldermen to enable the BJP to have control over standing committee and zonal committees of the MCD.
The meeting was then adjourned without electing a new mayor and deputy mayor of the city. Huge ruckus was also reported both inside and outside the Delhi assembly after elected members were not allowed to take oath first with AAP claiming that never in the “history of MCD has nominated members taken oath first”.
According to MCD officials, it was for the first time in the history of the civic body that a newly-elected House had failed to elect a mayor and deputy mayor in its maiden meeting.
The electoral college for the election of mayor comprises the 250 elected councillors, seven Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi and 14 MLAs. The Delhi Assembly Speaker has nominated 13 AAP and one BJP member to the House.
The total votes in the mayoral polls are 274. The numbers game favours the AAP, which has 150 votes against the BJP’s 113.
In the MCD elections held in December last year, the AAP ended BJP’s 15-year-old rule in the civic body, winning 134 of the 250 wards. The BJP managed to win 104 wards.
The AAP also protested outside the assembly against the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, VK Saxena over allegations of the Lt governor’s interference in the issue of teacher training in Finland. Following this, the AAP, led by CM Arvind Kejriwal, took out a march to L-G House.
(With PTI Inputs)
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